Congratulations to the teams on 2C, 3B and 3C for meeting their hand hygiene compliance goals for the month of April! Each team celebrated with some sweet treats last week.

These units are involved in the hand hygiene quality improvement project, which is working to improve compliance rates by providing regular updates on compliance and through engagement with staff. Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre has set a hospital wide target of 90% compliance for hand hygiene.

Hand hygiene is the best way to prevent hospital acquired infections. Hand hygiene should be preformed at the following times:

• 4 moments of hand hygiene
  
  1. Before initial patient/ patient environment contact
  2. Before aseptic procedures
  3. After body fluid exposure
  4. After patient/ patient environment contact

• If hands are visibly soiled (soap and water required)
• Before donning gloves/ after doffing gloves
• Before preparing, handling, serving or eating food
• After delivery or collection of meal trays/plates
• After touching environmental surfaces or objects (e.g. reusable equipment, door handles)