Literature Review: Hand Hygiene and its Relevance to Hospital Acquired Infections
In the 1840’s a gentleman by the name of Ignaz Semmelweis discovered a significant
decrease in mortality by simple improvements in hand hygiene practices (The Joint Commission
(TJC), 2020). The simple most effective way to reduce the spread of infection is by instill the
techniques of appropriate hand hygiene, in which the spread of resistant organisms can be
prevented (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019). Keeping hands clean is a low-cost
simple way of increasing patient safety, which can be dramatically enhanced just by compliance
alone (World Health Organization (WHO), 2020). High incidence of hospital acquired infection
has been closely related to a decreased hand hygiene compliance rate and therefore have created
hand hygiene adherence programs (McCalla, Reilly, Thomas, McSpedon-Rai, McMahon, &
Palumbo, 2018).
Hospital acquired infections, or HAI’s, are infections acquired during the stay in a
healthcare facility which are not present or incubating at the time of admission (Monegro,
Muppidi, & Regunath, 2020). The risk for getting a hospital acquired infection depends on an
individual’s immune system and the category of risk they fall under, such as immunosuppression,
older age, underlying medical conditions, the presence of central lines or indwelling catheters,
just to name a few (Monegro, Muppidi, & Regunath, 2020). Hospital acquired infections are
attributed to high mortality and morbidity within the healthcare organizations throughout the
United States and are associated with a substantial cost each year that is tied the healthcare
facility itself (Healthy People, 2020). It has been spoken that there needs to be an
implementation of educational resources when it comes to hand hygiene and its importance as it
has been observed that healthcare workers seem to care most about appropriate measures of hand
hygiene only when it seems to be a direct cause to their wellbeing (Shobowale, Adgunle,
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