References - Hand Hygiene
References are listed alphabetically. Please click on the relevant links for more information.
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Australian National Benchmark
A benchmark of 80% for hand hygiene compliance has been advised by the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council in 2017.
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"Germs can survive on unwashed hands for over an hour."
Grayson, M. L., Melvani, S., Druce, J., Barr, I. G., Ballard, S. A., Johnson, P. D., Mastorakos, T., & Birch, C., (2009), Efficacy of soap and water and alcohol-based hand-rub preparations against live H1N1 influenza virus on the hands of human volunteers. Clin Infect Dis. 1; 48(3):285-91.
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Hand Hygiene Australia
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National Hand Hygiene Initiative
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"percentage of moments where hand hygiene was performed correctly"
Audit data taken from the hospital's submission to the ACSQHC's National Hand Hygiene Initiative's website. Overall national Healthscope corporate data only includes data submitted to the NHHI.
The graph showing the hospital's performance indicates whether it has performed below, above or similar to the benchmark of 80%. For an explanation of confidence intervals, refer to the MyHospitals section of the AIHW's website. Healthscope calculates figures in the same way.
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"soap and water"
Research has shown that hand sanitiser is better than traditional soap and water because
- it requires less time to use
- in many clinical situations, it results in significantly greater reduction in bacteria than soap and water
- it causes less irritation to the skin
- it can be made readily accessible
- it is more cost-effective.