Hand hygiene for patient safety

BMJ recently published an editorial, Keeping hand hygiene high on the patient safety agenda, which was written to mark the World Health Organisation's annual global hand hygiene day on 5 May.  Despite being the first country to roll out a national Cleanyourhands campaign in 2004, the UK government closed the campaign in December 2010, stating that “Hand hygiene is now an established part of clinical care.”  The authors argue strongly that continued monitoring, audit, feedback, and improvement of hand hygiene compliance must be a priority.  BMJ 2013;346:f2699

WHO's Save Lives - Clean your hands campaign site includes links to relevant videos, podcasts, action plans and other information. You can also find links there to their documents, "WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care" and "Hand hygiene in outpatient care, home-based care and long-term care facilities".