At the beginning of 2014, the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) in Mexico started working on the hand hygiene campaign for the first time, to support a reduction in health care-associated infections.
“We are now running a hand hygiene (HH) implementation pilot project in four hospitals to compare the cost of antibiotics with the total cost of implementing hand hygiene at the point of care. Beside the costs for handrub provided at the bedside, monitoring consumption on a daily basis, HH compliance monitoring, service and training are also included, a multimodal strategy recommended by WHO”.
The biggest challenge in establishing the hand hygiene campaign is changing people’s mindsets towards a patient safety culture. As part of the project, campaign activities are planned to get people more engaged; increasing use of alcohol handrub solutions instead of soap and water, holding a contest for health care workers each year where they award the best content (poster, video, songs, etc) related to good practice on hand hygiene in their hospitals.
Thanks to the effort of hospital leaders, infection prevention teams, doctors, nurses and also administrative workers involved in the campaign and project, it has been possible to observe that most Mexican health care workers are now aware of the importance of performing hand hygiene. Compliance on the practice of hand hygiene related to the “5 Moments” and practicing it in the right way, is increasing every day.
“The hand hygiene message for 2016? To keep engaging more and more people because ‘Clean hands save lives!”