The impact of the Hand Hygiene New Zealand programme on hand hygiene practices in New Zealand's public hospitals

Abstract

Aim: To detail the progress made by Hand Hygiene New Zealand (HHNZ) since 2011 and also describe the challenges experienced along the way and the factors required for delivery of a successful hand hygiene programme at a national level.

Method: HHNZ is a multimodal culture-change programme based on the WHO '5 moments for hand hygiene' approach. The key components of the programme include clinical leadership, auditing of hand hygiene compliance with thrice yearly reporting of improvement in hand hygiene practice, biannual reporting of the outcome marker, healthcare-associated Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (HA-SAB), effective communication with key stakeholders and the use of the front-line ownership (FLO) principles for quality improvement.

Results: The nationally aggregated hand hygiene compliance has increased from 62% in June 2012 to 81% in March 2016. There has been improvement across all 'moments', all healthcare worker groups and a range of different clinical specialties. The rate of HA-SAB has remained stable.

Conclusion: The HHNZ programme has led to significant improvements in hand hygiene practice in DHBs throughout New Zealand. The principles of FLO are now widely used to drive hand hygiene improvement in New Zealand DHBs.