Abstract
Purpose
To investigate the impact of an electronic monitoring system(EMS) on the adherence to hand hygiene༈HH༉ protocols among healthcare professionals in the intensive care unit༈ICU༉, and analyze the correlation between HH and healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) .
Methods
We implemented the EMS system to monitor the HH compliance and collected HH data throughout the year in 2020. Additionally, a retrospective analysis was conducted on the HH and infection-related indicators of medical staff in the ICU from 2016 to 2019.
Results
HH compliance rate monitored by the EMS system exhibited a noteworthy improvement at 89.44%, and the result of direct observation was 88.5%. Notably, both rates were significantly higher than those observed between 2016 and 2019 (53.0%, 60.1%, 61.11%, and 82.4%). With the enhancement of HH compliance, there was a notable reduction in HAIs’ rate in the ICU ward. Every 1% increasing results in a 5.2% decline of HAIs’ rate (Y = -5.200X + 347.2, r =-0.9991, P = 0.0186). However, HAIs did not exhibit any further decline beyond an 80% HH compliance rate. Over the past five years, no significant changes were observed in terms of average infection rates across three tubes or detection rates for four drug-resistant bacteria within the ICU ward.
Conclusion
The EMS’ efficiency is comparable to that of the direct observation method. The rate of HAIs showed a negative correlation with HH compliance until the compliance rate exceeded 80%.