Better hand hygiene by healthcare workers in hospitals improves patient safety. Direct observation is described as the gold standard of hand hygiene compliance monitoring by the World Health Organization (WHO). The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) undertakes the coordination of biannual monitoring of hand hygiene observational audits in accordance with the WHO "Five Moments" methodology. Guidelines for the Irish setting were updated in 2015.

For Period 10 for October/November 2015 national audit 44 acute hospitals, including 8 private acute hospitals, submitted the data. Compliance was 89.2%. Results for ten periods since 2011 are published on the HPSC website.

Table 1: National hand hygiene compliance by period

We are requesting data for Period 11 (May/June 2016) to be sent to HPSC by the end of June. Updated data collection forms and the MS Excel tool are available from the HPSC website. An online starter help page is available for existing and new users of MicroB.

If a third-party electronic application is used then please contact HPSC prior to commencement in order to facilitate direct data transfer from vendors.

Ajay Oza and Helen Murphy, HPSC