Use your power to save lives - CC promotes safe patient care

While national Patient Safety Awareness Week was formally celebrated in March 2018, staff are working to create a culture of patient safety all year-long at the NIH Clinical Center.

To support patient safety, the Hospital Epidemiology Service recently launched a hand hygiene campaign called 'All Hands on Deck'. The goal of the initiative is to engage and improve hand hygiene compliance amongst health care staff, patients and visitors. The initiative was adapted from a successful pilot program at the Hospital Epidemiology Service at the University of North Carolina Health Care in Chapel Hill, N.C. Frontline health care personnel were involved in conducting hand hygiene compliance measurements among themselves.

Hand hygiene has the power to save lives and stop the spread of infections. Given the prevalence and degree of immunosuppression of the patient population, achieving high hand hygiene compliance is a priority. Proper hand hygiene not only protects patients, but also protects staff.

Upon admission, patients have received a hand fan that says 'I love clean hands' and have been encouraged to speak up, or hold it up, if they feel staff should do a better job at hand washing.

Staff play an important role too! Employees, just say "Top 10" to anyone who is not doing the proper hand hygiene in the clinic or on the unit. This code word may help with the social obstacles of reminding a peer or caregiver to hand-wash.

During Patient Safety Week, March 11-17, 2018, NIH staff who work in the Clinical Center took "selfies for safety."

To request a hand hygiene hand fan, sticker or additional information, contact the Hospital Epidemiology Service at CCCommunications@mail.nih.gov or 301- 496-2209. Staff, report a safety or quality concern: https://go.usa.gov/xUxkR. Staff, learn more about hand hygiene: https://go.usa.gov/xUrKy.