A study using undercover observers to check how often health-care workers wash their hands has offered powerful new evidence that Canadian hospitals’ much-vaunted hygiene rates are more illusion than reality.
Medical students in the study who secretly monitored hand cleaning found that just half of nurses and doctors at a major Toronto hospital soap up as required — far lower than the official rate divulged publicly.
In response to it and other research, a group of hospitals in the area is now planning to electronically measure compliance with hygiene rules, which are considered crucial to preventing the huge and deadly problem of hospital-spread infection.
Full article at: National Post