When the new Alder Hey Children’s Hospital opens this year the hand sanitiser of choice throughout the facility will be an alcohol-free hand rub. The Clinical Services Journal looks at why the infection prevention and control team made this decision.
With up to 40% of healthcare-associated infection (HCAI) being attributable to cross infection via healthcare workers hands,1 effective hand hygiene is vital to help prevent the spread of infection.
A popular solution has been the use of alcohol-based hand rubs at concentrations of up to 70% ethanol/isopropyl alcohol. There is evidence to show that this can offer a significantly better solution than soap in reducing hand contamination2, 3 and this resulted in NHS Trusts being advised by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) in 2004 to introduce ‘near patient’ alcohol-based hand rubs.
However, this solution also has some drawbacks. In 2008 the NPSA undertook a review of data from the National Reporting and Learning Systems’ (NRLS) Cleanyourhands campaign and this highlighted the risks associated with alcohol hand rubs. A total of 344 incidents relating to alcohol hand rub were reported in the acute setting. Of these, 176 incidents were said to be due to ingestion of alcohol hand rub with seven of these incidents explicitly stating that the ingestion was in error.
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