title: A qualitative study of senior hospital managers' views on current and innovative strategies to improve hand hygiene.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite universal recognition of the importance of hand hygiene in reducing the incidence of healthcare associated infections, health care workers' compliance with best practice has been sub-optimal. Senior hospital managers have responsibilities for implementing patient safety initiatives and are therefore ideally placed to provide suggestions for improving strategies to increase hand hygiene compliance. This is an under-researched area, accordingly the aim of this study was to identify senior hospital managers' views on current and innovative strategies to improve hand hygiene compliance.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative design comprising face-to-face interviews with thirteen purposively sampled senior managers at a major teaching and referral hospital in Sydney, Australia. Data were analysed thematically.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seven themes emerged: culture change starts with leaders, refresh and renew the message, connect the five moments to the whole patient journey, actionable audit results, empower patients, reconceptualising non-compliance and start using the hammer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To strengthen hand hygiene programmes, strategies based on the five moments of hand hygiene should be tailored to specific roles and settings and take into account the whole patient journey including patient interactions with clinical and non-clinical staff. Senior clinical and non-clinical leaders should visibly champion and mandate best practice initiatives and articulate that hand hygiene non-compliance is culturally and professionally unacceptable to the organization. Strategies that included a disciplinary component and which conceptualise hand hygiene non-compliance as a patient safety error may be worth evaluating in terms of staff acceptability and effectiveness.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: McInnes
authors.forename: Rosemary
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: Sandy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Middleton
authors.forename: Dinah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gould
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001315:Australia; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000517:prevention & control*; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D063373:Hand Hygiene; D006740:Hospital Administrators; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D015279:Organizational Culture; D061214:Patient Safety; D036301:Qualitative Research; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers / Q000458:organization & administration*