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NICE, FRANCE — A campaign to improve hand hygiene at a Danish hospital failed to decrease hospital-acquired infections, Dr. Sussie Laustsen and colleagues reported in a poster at the 16th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
The finding comes at a time when hand hygiene is being promoted as key to the World Health Organization's Global Patient Safety Challenge, which was launched in October 2005 to reduce health care-acquired infections worldwide.
In April 2004, a campaign began in all clinical departments at Aarhus (Denmark) University Hospital with instructions on performing alcohol-based hand disinfection.
Compliance with hand disinfection increased from 53% in the first quarter of 2004 to 71% in the first quarter of 2005, and consumption of hand alcohol doubled from about 1,250 L at baseline to 2,500 L in 2005.
However, the incidence of hospital-acquired infections did not decrease from baseline (1.77 per 1,000 bed-days) to the first quarter of 2005 (1.80 per 1,000 bed-days). The reason for this finding is unknown, but the hospital plans to increase surveillance, particularly among physicians, Dr. Laustsen said.
NICE, FRANCE — A campaign to improve hand hygiene at a Danish hospital failed to decrease hospital-acquired infections, Dr. Sussie Laustsen and colleagues reported in a poster at the 16th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
The finding comes at a time when hand hygiene is being promoted as key to the World Health Organization's Global Patient Safety Challenge, which was launched in October 2005 to reduce health care-acquired infections worldwide.
In April 2004, a campaign began in all clinical departments at Aarhus (Denmark) University Hospital with instructions on performing alcohol-based hand disinfection.
Compliance with hand disinfection increased from 53% in the first quarter of 2004 to 71% in the first quarter of 2005, and consumption of hand alcohol doubled from about 1,250 L at baseline to 2,500 L in 2005.
However, the incidence of hospital-acquired infections did not decrease from baseline (1.77 per 1,000 bed-days) to the first quarter of 2005 (1.80 per 1,000 bed-days). The reason for this finding is unknown, but the hospital plans to increase surveillance, particularly among physicians, Dr. Laustsen said.
NICE, FRANCE — A campaign to improve hand hygiene at a Danish hospital failed to decrease hospital-acquired infections, Dr. Sussie Laustsen and colleagues reported in a poster at the 16th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
The finding comes at a time when hand hygiene is being promoted as key to the World Health Organization's Global Patient Safety Challenge, which was launched in October 2005 to reduce health care-acquired infections worldwide.
In April 2004, a campaign began in all clinical departments at Aarhus (Denmark) University Hospital with instructions on performing alcohol-based hand disinfection.
Compliance with hand disinfection increased from 53% in the first quarter of 2004 to 71% in the first quarter of 2005, and consumption of hand alcohol doubled from about 1,250 L at baseline to 2,500 L in 2005.
However, the incidence of hospital-acquired infections did not decrease from baseline (1.77 per 1,000 bed-days) to the first quarter of 2005 (1.80 per 1,000 bed-days). The reason for this finding is unknown, but the hospital plans to increase surveillance, particularly among physicians, Dr. Laustsen said.