How to Decrease Infection Rates Using Custom Audits
CLABSI, CAUTI, VAP, and SSI together account for more than 80% of all hospital HAIs — and all are largely preventable. The organizations that consistently achieve the lowest infection rates share one discipline: they design targeted custom audits for their highest-risk processes, close the feedback loop fast, and re-measure. Here is what the evidence shows.
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Why Direct Observation Hand Hygiene Data Collection Is Critical in Acute Care and Long Term Care
Every day in the United States, approximately 1 in 31 hospital patients has at least one healthcare-associated infection. The single most effective intervention to prevent these infections is hand hygiene. But measuring whether it actually happens requires direct observation — the gold standard endorsed by the WHO, CDC, and Joint Commission.
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The Impact that Hand Hygiene Rates Have on Infection in Acute Care Facilities
A 10% improvement in hand hygiene compliance produces a 6% reduction in healthcare-associated infections and a 14% drop in C. difficile rates. Yet most acute care facilities operate at compliance levels below 40%. Here is what the evidence shows — and what it means for your infection prevention program.
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The Top Five Things You Can Do to Improve Hand Hygiene Rates in Your Organization
Adding a single ABHR dispenser per room can raise compliance by 18 percentage points overnight. Structured audit-and-feedback programs have driven an 82% increase across 45 trials. Here are the five evidence-based interventions that move the needle most — and why doing them together matters.
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How Does C-Suite Buy-In Affect Hand Hygiene Rates?
In a global survey of 3,200+ healthcare facilities, Institutional Safety Climate — the domain capturing leadership commitment — was the single lowest-scoring element of the WHO hand hygiene strategy. Here is what the evidence says leadership must actually do.
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What Impact Does a Hand Hygiene Cheerleader Have on Compliance Rates?
Bundled audit-and-feedback programs — the engine of every champion program — have driven an 82% increase in compliance across 45 trials. But what makes a hand hygiene champion truly effective, and what gets in their way? The evidence may surprise you.
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Can Acute Care and Long Term Care Construction Projects Benefit from Custom Audits?
Half of all healthcare-associated Aspergillus outbreaks are linked to construction or renovation activities — with a 50% mortality rate. Yet most facilities rely on a pre-construction ICRA alone, with no structured audit program to verify that precautions are actually being followed throughout the project.
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Impact of Empty Dispensers on Infection Rates
One in three healthcare workers cites empty product dispensers as a top barrier to hand hygiene. An empty dispenser does not just reduce compliance — it eliminates the possibility of a compliant event entirely. Here is what the evidence shows about the infection rate consequences of dispenser failures.
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What's the Deal with the Fake Rub and Wash?
When an auditor is present, compliance rates can be 30 percentage points higher than when no one is watching. Electronic monitoring has confirmed that hand hygiene event rates are approximately three times higher near auditors than away from them. Here is what the science of fake compliance reveals — and what to do about it.
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