Study: ICU patients’ hands carry pathogens

A study has shown that hand hygiene is important for ICU patients as well as healthcare workers, according to an article on the Infection Control Today website.

Investigators with the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine say that their findings demonstrate that ICU patients’ hands may harbor pathogenic bacteria.

Investigators believe that the prevalence of multidrug resistant organisms seemed to be lower in their study than in previous studies. may be because of the focus on ICU patients, who underwent daily chlorhexidine bathing per protocol. 

Despite the emphasis on hand hygiene in healthcare overall, “current best practice recommendations do not provide a strong guidance regarding patient hand hygiene,” according to the study. 

Read the article.