Visitors to healthcare facilities present an important opportunity in improving hand hygiene and preventing healthcare-associated infections. For this study, researchers compared three methods for visitor hand hygiene: a desk sign requiring all visitors to use alcohol-based hand sanitizer, a free-standing alcohol-based hand sanitizer dispenser directly in front of a security desk and a combination of a freestanding AHS dispenser and a sign. Hand hygiene compliance among visitors was 0.52 percent at baseline.
Researchers found the desk sign requiring use of alcohol-based sanitizer did not improve hand hygiene. However, availability of freestanding dispensers and the combination of the sign and dispenser significantly improved visitors’ compliance to hand hygiene. There was no statistically significant difference between the last two methods.
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