Hand Hygiene Compliance

Patient safety remains the most important priority for TADH and we are working to create a culture of patient safety that involves everyone – health-care administration, health-care professionals, and, of course, patients and families.

Research shows that hand hygiene is the single most effective way to reduce the risk of healthcare-associated infections. Hand hygiene is a key issue for our hospital, and we continually work to improve compliance. Of course it is something we all do but we want to continue to do better and ensure everyone cleans their hands at the right times and in the right way.

Patients can help improve their own safety

Hand hygiene involves everyone in the hospital, including patients. Hand cleaning is one of the best ways you and your health-care team can prevent the spread of many infections. Patients and their visitors should also practice good hand hygiene before and after entering patient rooms.

More patient-specific information is available on the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care website.

Measuring compliance rates

Ontario hospitals are posting their hand hygiene compliance rates as percentages for time periods identified by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, using the following formula:

Number of times hand hygiene performed x 1000
Number of observed hand hygiene indications

These percentages also reflect:

hand hygiene before initial patient/patient environment contact by combined health-care provider type (e.g., nurses, health professionals, physicians, housekeeping, support staff, etc.)
hand hygiene after patient/patient environment contact by combined health-care provider type (e.g., nurses, health professionals, physicians, housekeeping, support staff, etc.)

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