title: Estimating the volume of alcohol-based hand rub required for a hand hygiene program.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Providing alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR) at the point of care is a key success factor in enabling health care providers to achieve optimal hand hygiene practices. There are few tools available for health care organizations to assess the number of points of care, estimate the number of hand hygiene indications at each point of care, and estimate the anticipated volume of ABHR required to support a hand hygiene program.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed an assessment tool to systematically evaluate the environmental hand hygiene needs in diverse care settings across a multisite health care organization.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We identified 1,103 points of care in 34 clinical units, of which only 53% had ABHR at point of care. There are an estimated 171,468,240 (95% confidence interval: 146,844,406-191,871,179) hand hygiene indications per year in our in-patient and emergency areas. If 100% compliance with hand hygiene is achieved, 240,056 L of ABHR will be required each year.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our environmental assessment was invaluable in estimating the number of hand hygiene indications by unit and the logistical and financial requirements to implement a hand hygiene program. Other health care organizations may find this a useful framework to estimate their own environmental hand hygiene needs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology and Metabolisma, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Silvana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sicoli
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.forename: Josée
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shymanski
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.forename: Virginia R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Roth
mesh_terms: D000438:Alcohols / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004202:Disinfectants / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006235:Hand Disinfection / Q000379:methods*; D006268:Health Facilities; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000438:Alcohols; D004202:Disinfectants