title: Hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers in an accredited tertiary care hospital.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We are using multimodal technique to improve hand hygiene (HH) compliance among all health care staff for the past 1-year. This cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the surgical ICU to assess adherence to HH among nurses and allied healthcare workers, at the end of the training year.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a cross-sectional observational study using direct observation technique. A single observer collected all HH data. During this analysis, 1500 HH opportunities were observed. HH compliance was tested for all 5 moments as per WHO guidelines.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall compliance as per WHO Guidelines was 78%. Nurses had an adherence rate of 63%; allied staff adherence was 86.5%. Compliance was 93% after patient contact versus 63% before patient contact. Nurses'compliance before aseptic procedures was lowest at 39%. 92% staff was aware of the facts viz. Diseases prevented by hand washing, ideal duration of HH, reduction of health care associated infections, etc.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  After 1-year of aggressive multimodal intervention in improving HH compliance, we have an overall compliance of 78%. It implies that sustained performance and compliance to HH can be ensured by ongoing training. Direct observation remains a widely used, easily reproducible method for monitoring compliance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, MKCG Medical College, Berhampur, Odisha, India.
authors.forename: Siddharth
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chavali
authors.affiliation: Department of Critical Care, Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Varun
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Menon
authors.affiliation: Department of Critical Care, Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Urvi
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Shukla
keywords: 5 moments; compliance; hand hygiene