Background: Methicillin – resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections are the most common health care associated infections (HAI) in UMMC. The major mode of transmission from patient to patient is through contaminated hands. Measurement and monitoring of healthcare workers’ hand hygiene compliance is a key component in the strategy to eliminate healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs).
Objective: To determine the average number of hand hygiene opportunities and compliance with recommended WHO Hand Hygiene Guidelines on 6 clinical units at University Malaya Medical Centre in March 2010 and March 2011.
Methods: Data on hand hygiene compliance were collected through direct observation using Hand Hygiene opportunities based on WHO’s Model “ 5 Moments for hand hygiene”.
Results: 3376 opportunities were observed in Year 2010 and 2609 in Year 2011. Hand Hygiene Compliance was improved from 26.3% in 2010 to 44.3% in 2011. The highest compliance rate was found in Critical Units and the lowest in Medical Units. Compliance rates among HCWs was increased in year 2011, before patient contact increase (14.3% to 21.6%),before aseptic task (20.1% to 44.6%, after body fluids exposure(29.2% to 70.3%), after patient contact (38% to 55.8%) and after surroundings (23.9% to 47.1%).MRSA rates has decreased from 0.4% in March 2010 to 0.09% March 2011.
Conclusions: Improving hand hygiene compliance requires a multimodal strategy implementing sufficient equipment, regular training, positive feedback, motivation and involvement of opinion leaders. Throughout the observation period the rate of HH compliance has increased in our Institution and decrease in the number of hospital associated MRSA infections.