Hand washing among health care providers at Burnaby Hospital is way up since two years ago, but doctors continue to lag significantly behind their colleagues, according to the latest report by B.C.’s Provincial Hand Hygiene Working Group.
Health-care workers’ hands are the most common vehicle for the spread of potentially deadly infections – like C difficile and MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) – around hospitals, according the B.C. Ministry of Health’s best practices for hand hygiene.
Hand cleaning is considered the best way to combat them.
In 2011/12, when Fraser Health first started reporting the results of hand-hygiene audits at its hospitals, compliance among Burnaby Hospital personnel was shown to be as low as 46 per cent during one quarter.
In the latest audits, however – for the period between April 1 and June 19 – that number is up to 87 per cent – five per cent above the provincial average and four per cent above the average for Fraser Health.
Housekeeping, maintenance and food services staff, along with hospital volunteers, performed the best, with a compliance rate of 95 per cent.
Clinical staff, including medical technicians, porters, therapists and pharmacists, were next with a 92 per cent compliance rate.
They were followed by nurses, who were observed using proper hand hygiene 87 per cent of the time.
Doctors came in a distant last at 75 per cent.
Still, local doctors did better than their counterparts around the province.
The provincial average for hand-hygiene compliance among physicians was 69 per cent, compared to 82 per cent for B.C. health-care workers overall.
Doctors have lagged more than 10 per cent behind other health-care providers for four years, according to annual reports by the Hand Hygiene Working Group.
“We talk to all our care providers, including physicians, about how to improve hand hygiene compliance, and that work is ongoing,” Fraser Health spokesperson Tasleem Juma told the NOW. “As for why doctors continue to be the least compliant, that’s something the College can answer.”
While doctors have privileges at hospitals, they are not employed by the health authorities.
The B.C. College of Physicians, however, declined to comment on why hand-cleaning compliance among doctors is the lowest among health-care workers in the province.
“The College doesn’t collect any data on hand hygiene compliance,” wrote the College’s director of communications, Susan Prins in an email. “These types of studies are usually conducted in a health authority or a specific hospital.”
