title: Handwashing adherence by visitors is poor: is there a simple solution?
abstract: Available evidence suggests that handwashing adherence by visitors to hospital clinics is poor. In this investigation, an audit of 180 people showed that handwashing adherence by visitors to a hospital clinic was 25%, which was very low. Our active method to encourage handwashing led to a marked improvement in adherence from 25% to 68%, increasing to 77% for longer term visitors to the clinic (significance, P < .0001).
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, King's College London, Guy's Campus, London, UK. Electronic address: theodore.willison-parry@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Theodore A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Willison-Parry
authors.forename: Elizabeth A C
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Haidar
authors.forename: Luigi G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Martini
authors.forename: Anthony R M
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Coates
mesh_terms: D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006235:Hand Disinfection / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods*; D014789:Visitors to Patients
keywords: Compliance; Hand hygiene; Nosocomial infection