Doctors, Nurses Falling Short on Hand Hygiene, Report Says
Nearly one third of hospital workers in British Columbia are not washing their hands regularly, despite strong evidence that it is one of the primary ways to prevent the spread of infection in hospitals.
A recent report from the Provincial Infection Control Network in B.C. found that while sanitation-compliance rates have improved since 2007 - when regional healthauthority programs were set up to tackle hand hygiene issues - the latest statistics show physicians and nurses are still falling well short of the 80 per cent compliance target.
Good hand hygiene practices can help mitigate the spread of germs like C. difficile, a virulent stomach bug that causes diarrhea and may progress to bowel perforation, sepsis and even death, according to the World Health Organization.
The WHO recommends washing with soap and water as the preferred way to deal with the hand sanitizer-resistant spores of C. difficile.