Southern DHB spreading the message to ‘See Your Hands’

Southern DHB spreading the message to ‘See Your Hands’ for World Hand Hygiene Day

Use Me Group Shot2Tomorrow, Southern DHB will be celebrating World Hand Hygiene Day (Thursday 5 May 2016).

The theme this year is ‘See Your Hands - hand hygiene supports safe surgical care - Practice hand hygiene for surgical patients from admission to discharge’. The DHB is encouraging all its healthcare workers to use World Hand Hygiene Day as an opportunity to refresh their hand hygiene knowledge and re-pledge to make it a priority.

There will be special displays reminding staff about the ‘5 moments of hand hygiene’ around the DHB, and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) staff will be on hand to inform staff and patients about the importance of hand hygiene, which is vital to supporting good health, reducing the spread of infection and ultimately saving lives.

“The 5 moments of hand hygiene are simple and easy but everyone needs to be reminded about the importance of these,” said Southern DHB IPC Co-ordinator Jo Stodart.

The simple World Health Organisation’s 5 moments for hand hygiene approach requires hand hygiene to be completed at the following times, irrespective of whether or not gloves are used:

• Before patient contact
• Before a procedure
• After a procedure or body fluid exposure risk
• After patient contact
• After contact with patient surroundings

Southern DHB has achieved a fantastic 85 percent hand hygiene performance in the latest five month audit. This is against a national DHB target of 80 percent with best practice set by the Health & Safety Commission. We continue to be in the top three DHBs.

“These results reflect the commitment of all our staff at Southern DHB, and their dedication to Patient Safety and the essentials of best practice hand hygiene,” commented Tina Gilbertson, Director of Quality.

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