Whanganui DHB's Maurice Chamberlain said the organisation is working to improve hand hygiene among all staff. Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui DHB's Maurice Chamberlain said the organisation is working to improve hand hygiene among all staff. Photo / Bevan Conley
Staff at the Whanganui District Health Board have the lowest rate of correct hand washing in the country, according to a new report.
The report from the Health Quality & Safety Commission (HQSC) released data collected from an audit of staff from 20 DHBs across New Zealand from November 2021 to February 2022.
The audit measured the DHB's compliance with the World Health Organisation's five moments of hand hygiene.
The five moments when health workers should clean their hands are before touching a patient, before cleaning procedures, after body fluid exposure risk, after touching a patient and after touching a patient's surroundings.
Whanganui DHB had the lowest compliance rate in the country, at 77 per cent, 4.4 per cent lower than the next lowest compliance rate in Wairarapa, and 9.7 per cent below the national average of compliance at 86.7 per cent.
Whanganui is also the only DHB where the compliance rate was below the HQSC's national target, which is 80 per cent.
DHB_compliance_rates_OL
According to the HQSC's infection prevention and control national clinical lead, Dr Sally Roberts, each DHB had a designated number of moments to collect based on their bed numbers and their number of wards.
Taking the total number of moments and the moments completed correctly, the report calculated a compliance rate for each DHB.
Previous data from the HQSC shows Whanganui had previously met the 80 per cent target between June and October last year.
Before that Whanganui DHB had exceeded the 80 per cent compliance target since 2012, when the HQSC started collecting the data.
Whanganui DHB's associate director of nursing Maurice Chamberlain said that the DHB took hand hygiene very seriously and was working to increase education and improve hand washing.
Chamberlain said the audit results had been sent out to area managers and that action was already being taken to rectify the fall in compliance.
"Further education is being set up for staff. The infection prevention team have a focus on this quality indicator and is keeping a close eye on compliance."
A display on correct hygiene will also be at the front of the hospital on May 5, as that is world hand hygiene day.
A visual display on glove use will also be given, as well as increased auditing of staff.
In the DHB's agenda notes for their April 29 public board meeting, it said the moment of hygiene they were focusing on improving was moment five, after touching a patient's surroundings.
Chamberlain said the DHB was focusing on improving compliance in moment five in particular as it was often the most misunderstood moment.
HQSC's report says that across all DHBs, hygiene moment 5 is the moment which is least complied with, with a national average compliance rate of 80 per cent.
The DHB said the group of staff they were focusing on improving compliance with is "other" staff.
Chamberlain said this group of staff could be any non-regulated staff members that were not recognised in the audit criteria, which could mean volunteers or sub-contractors.
Hospital groups recognised in the audit:
Nurse/Midwife
Medical Practitioner
Allied Health Care Worker
Phlebotomy Invasive Technician
Health Care Assistant
Student Nurse/Midwife
Cleaner & Meal staff
Administrative and Clerical Staff,
Other - Orderly & Not Categorised Elsewhere.
He said the "other" staff group could sometimes be difficult to assist in hand hygiene as they may not be direct staff of the DHB.
Nationally "other" DHB staff are not a group with especially low hygiene compliance rates, with a national average of 87.4 per cent, which is in the upper half of compliance rates for DHB staff groups.
However, Chamberlain said that they were focusing on all members of staff in the DHB to improve their hand hygiene.
"We focus on all areas and staff requiring further education or information, this may also mean reviewing our processes to make it easier for staff and others to access products."
