A new case study from Memorial Hermann Health System shows how implementing The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare's Targeted Solutions Tool for hand hygiene can decrease healthcare-associated infections, according to a report from The Joint Commission.
Memorial Hermann Health System implemented the tool at 12 hospitals in 2010. The tool was implemented for 150 inpatient units and the hospitals conducted a systemwide process improvement project from October 2010 to December 2014. There were 31,600 observations included in the study.
The researchers found:
1. Systemwide hand hygiene compliance baseline rate averaged 58.1 percent and compliance averaged 84.4 percent during the "improve" phase — June 2011 to November 2012.
2. Compliance was 94.7 percent during the first 13 months of the "control phase" — December 2012 to December 2014.
3. The compliance increased to 95.6 percent in the final year of the study.
4. There was a concomitant adult ICU CLABSI and ventilator-associated pneumonia rate decrease over the study period.
5. The researchers concluded "MHHS substantially improved hand hygiene compliance in its hospitals and sustained high levels of compliance for 25 months following implementation."
