By Greg Freeman
Hand hygiene is improving dramatically in U.S. healthcare facilities, according to a new report from The Leapfrog Group. The 2024 Hand Hygiene Report indicates that since Leapfrog began public reporting on hand hygiene in 2020, the percentage of hospitals meeting its rigorous standards has increased from 11% to 74% in 2023. The report reveals a 78% rise in hospitals holding leadership directly accountable for hand hygiene through performance reviews or compensation adjustments. That suggests that hand hygiene and patient safety are increasingly a priority among hospitals, the report says. The report also reveals a dramatic increase in the adoption of electronic hand hygiene monitoring systems, with only 4.7% of hospitals employing such technology in 2020 and 10% in 2023.
Leapfrog’s Hand Hygiene Standard mandates that clinicians and staff adhere to hand hygiene best practices from a national Hand Hygiene Expert Panel. Hospitals are evaluated across these five key domains:
- Monitoring: Checking if hand washing is done correctly and often enough.
- Feedback: Using data to see how well hand hygiene practices are followed and drive improvements.
- Training and Education: Teaching the right way to wash hands through physical demonstration.
- Infrastructure: Making sure there are enough hand sanitizer dispensers and washing stations.
- Culture: Establishing a strong focus on hand hygiene at every organizational level.
The report is available online at https://www.leapfroggroup.org/ratings-reports/reports-hospital-and-asc-performance.
The Leapfrog hand hygiene standard is quite robust and is focused not only on monitoring compliance, but also making sure that staff is trained and educated, and that staff gets feedback on how well they’re doing, says Kathryn Burggraf Stewart, MPH, director of healthcare ratings with The Leapfrog Group in Washington, DC. The feedback should be at both the unit level and executive level, she says. There also should be a culture around good hand hygiene, also with a supportive infrastructure, she says.
“It’s one thing to tell staff to wash their hands, but if there are not sanitizer dispensers that are filled properly, that’s not going to work very well. When we first revamped and launched what the standard was in 2020, there was really low performance,” she says. “What the report highlights is that only 11% of hospitals achieved the hand hygiene standard in 2020, and now we’re seeing, based on the 2023 survey results, that there is a sevenfold increase. That’s quite extensive to see such progress in really not that much time and during a global pandemic.”
The Leapfrog standard calls for staff to physically demonstrate proper hand hygiene before they are allowed to interact with patients.
“If someone is new to the hospital, someone should demonstrate that they can perform hand hygiene properly,” Stewart says. “Many hospitals weren’t doing that when we first developed the standard. And then as hospitals report and see how they’re doing, they can see where they’re falling behind. That’s how we saw improvement.”
Source
- Kathryn Burggraf Stewart, MPH, Director of Healthcare Ratings, The Leapfrog Group, Washington, DC. Telephone: (202) 292-6713.
Greg Freeman has worked with Relias Media and its predecessor companies since 1989, moving from assistant staff writer to executive editor before becoming a freelance writer. He has been the editor of Healthcare Risk Management since 1992 and provides research and content for other Relias Media products. In addition to his work with Relias Media, Greg provides other freelance writing services and is the author of seven narrative nonfiction books on wartime experiences and other historical events.
Hand hygiene is improving dramatically in U.S. healthcare facilities, according to a new report from The Leapfrog Group. The 2024 Hand Hygiene Report indicates that since Leapfrog began public reporting on hand hygiene in 2020, the percentage of hospitals meeting its rigorous standards has increased from 11% to 74% in 2023
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