Human observation boosts hand-hygiene compliance according to researchers who observed a significant influence among healthcare workers in an ICU, according to an article on the Healio website.
For a study published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, seventy electronic dispensers of hand sanitizer were installed in the ICU, and each use of these dispensers was recorded in a database. A trained medical student conducted audits of hand-hygiene behavior, each lasting 2 hours.
The study compared the number of electronically recorded sanitizer uses with and without human observation.
The study found an average increase from eight sanitizer uses per hour during periods without direct observation to 21 per hour when a human observer was in the room.
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