By Healthcare Facilities Today

Becker's Hospital Review and Becker's ASC Review, gathered five recent stories on hand hygiene on the Becker's ASC Review website. The site includes links to the five original sources along with links to other hand hygiene stories and  ten free Patient Safety Tools on hand hygiene that can be downloaded.

1. A fist bump, instead of a handshake, may reduce the rate of bacterial transmission as three times less surface area is exposed and contact time is 2.7 times less with a fist bump than a handshake,. 

2. Washing hands before wearing nonsterile gloves does not decrease the bacterial count on the gloves, making that step unnecessary.

3. A survey by DebMed shows only 30 percent of healthcare professionals follow the World Health Organization's "My Five Moments for Hand Hygiene" guidelines even though 90 percent believe the guidelines present good practices.

4. Didier Pittet, MD,  the head of the team developing "My Five Moments for Hand Hygiene" offers five tips on improving hand hygiene compliance.

5. The IntelligentM Smartband is worn on the wrist and communicates with hand sanitation devices, tracking the hand hygiene actions of healthcare professionals.

Read the article.