DOHA: The Infection Control team at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) recently held a week-long campaign to promote hand hygiene compliance throughout the organisation adopting World Health Organisation’s global campaign of ‘Save Lives: Clean Your Hands’.
The campaign, which was sponsored by Professor Michael Richmond, Chief of Medical, Academic and Research Affairs at HMC, represents part of the organization’s continuous efforts to instil a culture of safety in every facet of ongoing patient care.
Professor Richmond advised that, in order to provide higher quality care to patients and consistently improve safety standards, you need the commitment of senior management and a mind shift among staff to take responsibility.
“Good hand hygiene should be a matter of routine, but is still often forgotten by many staff immediately before touching a patient,” he said.
“Infection control is everyone’s responsibility. Patients and their family members can help by asking health workers who are about to touch them to clean their hands first, and thanking them when they do.”
Professor Richmond added that good hand hygiene practices for healthcare professionals, as well as patients and their families, are an important means to control infection.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has indicated that every year hundreds of millions of patients around the world are affected by healthcare-associated infections, which usually occur when caregivers’ hands transfer germs while touching patients.
These infections can lead to significant physical and psychological suffering and can even result in the death of patients. Studies have shown that if caregivers properly cleaned their hands at key moments while providing patient care, more than half of these infections could be prevented.
The Peninsula
