Doctors cop flak for poor hand hygiene
When it comes to washing their hands to stop superbugs, nurses do well but doctors are lagging, new Australian figures show.
A study to see if an education program could lift hand hygiene rates among hospital workers found it worked, but more so with some staff than others.
The results, published by the Medical Journal of Australia today, show compliance with washing hands in 521 hospitals jumped from 43 per cent to 67 per cent in the first two years of the National Hand Hygiene Initiative.
Nursing staff, including student nurses, were the most hygienic, reaching 73 per cent, while doctors and medical students lagged at 52 per cent, worse than any other workers.
National rates of the superbug methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus fell after the program was introduced.
Professor Lindsay Grayson, director of Hand Hygiene Australia, was concerned by the lower rates of hand hygiene among doctors. While they tended to spend less hands-on time than nurses, their contact was more likely to be with seriously ill patients more vulnerable to superbugs.
"Our data raise important concerns about the assumed leadership role of medical staff in terms of hand hygiene compliance," he said.
Australian Medical Association WA president Dave Mountain said hand hygiene was essential but cleaning gels and soap needed to be readily available.
"It's one of those things that in a busy environment it can be forgotten, or it's too hard, so there should be alcohol gels available in every cubicle to make it easy for people to do the right thing," he said.
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons said that from 2013 medical graduates wanting to become surgeons would have to complete units in hand hygiene to be accepted into the training program.
The release of the research comes as Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon pushes States to publish data on how well hospital staff comply with hand-washing guidelines.
At today's health ministers' meeting in Brisbane, Ms Roxon will ask for more information about healthcare quality and safety on the hospital comparison website My Hospitals so the public can be informed.
As well as data on hand hygiene compliance, Ms Roxon wants figures on cancer services, cancer surgery waiting times and unplanned readmission rates to be included next year.
