ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Good hand hygiene prevents up to 50 per cent of healthcare-acquired infections, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

And research carried out by Essity reveals that eight out of 10 healthcare professionals would like to improve their hand hygiene compliance.

Essity's Tork brand is calling on all healthcare organisations around the globe to establish an Institutional Safety Climate for this year's World Hand Hygiene Day, which is today. The aim of the move would be to encourage hand hygiene role models and build safer patient environments.

"Proper hand hygiene saves lives," said Essity Professional Hygiene's marketing director healthcare Thomas Bergin. "It's the collective responsibility of everyone within healthcare worldwide to maintain high standards, and fostering a culture of institutional safety within healthcare organisations keeps hand hygiene top of mind."

In order to support healthcare professionals and enable safer healthcare environments, Essity has developed Tork Clean Hands Training in collaboration with behavioural scientists and hand hygiene experts.

The training invites users into a digital world where they can interact and train using WHO's own ‘My Five Moments of Hand Hygiene' in a realistic environment. It has been accessed almost 15,000 times since the end of 2019.

World Hand Hygiene Day is the WHO's annual call to action for healthcare workers. This year's theme focuses on the fifth component of WHO's Multimodal Strategy for Hand Hygiene Compliance, creating an Institutional Safety Climate that prioritises high hand hygiene compliance to achieve the safety of patients and healthcare professionals on institutional and individual levels.

For details of World Hand Hygiene Day click here.