Calls for better hand-washing in Alberta hospitals
Posted Nov 6, 2013 8:31 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Health Minister Fred Horne says the hand-washing compliance rate in Alberta hospitals needs to be a lot better.
Horne made the comments after learning the hand-hygiene compliance rate in Auditor General Merwan Saher’s report Monday was 66 per cent.
“We’ve seen an improvement, but that’s nowhere near high enough,” the Minister said Tuesday.
“I know our health care workers are working very hard, but the preventable spread of infection is something we can and we need to do because when we don’t do it that well, we find backups in the system and people can become very ill and even die,” he tells 660News.
Horne echoed the A.G.’s recommendations for more education and better reporting.
In the data, Saher suggests “workers may be more aware of hand hygiene risks if they perceive their own health may be at risk.”
He believes data reporting could help us better pinpoint which hospitals need to do a better job at improving their compliance rate.
According to Saher, one of the biggest obstacles for the healthcare worker is a reluctance to change established practices and habits, hand-washing with sanitizers is also hard on the skin and it takes time.
The time factor is one thing Liberal Critic Dr. David Swann believes professionals could really use.
He’s pointing the finger of blame at the Progressive Conservative government.
“It is partly a function of oversight but being short-staffed and over-capacity of patients is a recipe for disaster and this government needs to make some changes here,” he tells 660News.
Swann called out the Minister Tuesday in the Legislature, saying Horne needs to act urgently on Saher’s report.
In response to the compliance rate, AHS officials say they’re installing more hand-washing units in areas where patient contact is the highest, they’re installing more hands-free taps, and they’ve started an awareness campaign.
Compared to other provinces, Alberta still lags behind others; the compliance rates in British Columbia and Ontario are both 70 and 80 per cent respectively.
Horne says they’re continuing to look at this and adds his department and AHS will be sitting down to look at all of the Auditor General’s recommendations.
He hopes to be able to discuss their progress in the coming weeks.
“Something like hand-washing is not that complicated,” says the Minister who didn’t want to point fingers. “It involves all of us, those who work in the system or everyone one of us who interacts with that system as a patient or who has a family member who is receiving care, all we have to do is make that conscious decision to wash our hands.”
He says a 100 per cent compliance rate is achievable and adds it should be their target.
“Health staff taking responsibility themselves, I think they want to do it, I think they’re very busy… it’s just a case of making it a habit and part of our everyday culture to protect our family and friends,” says Horne.
