Hand hygiene compliance

Good hand hygiene (washing hands with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand rub) is an important part of good patient care.

It’s easy to practise good hand hygiene

Proper hand hygiene reduces the spread of germs.

See easy-to-follow instructions on handwashing (Healthy WA) including translations in:

• Arabic
• Chinese (simplified and traditional)
• Italian
• Malay
• Vietnamese.

Visit the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (external site) to find hand hygiene resources for:

• patients and their carers
• children and their carers
• mental health workers.

Why good hand hygiene is important

Good hand hygiene is important to protect all patients, but especially those who are seriously ill or have weakened immune systems from conditions including:

• Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) (HealthyWA)
• Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (HealthyWA)

Our commitment to hand hygiene

Hand Hygiene Australia (HHA) (external site) describes improving hand hygiene among healthcare workers as the single most effective intervention in reducing healthcare-associated infections (HAI) in Australian hospitals. The aim is for healthcare workers to perform hand hygiene correctly at every opportunity, for example, before and after touching a patient.

In 2008/09 the National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI) (external site) was implemented to develop a national approach to improving hand hygiene and monitor its effectiveness. Hand hygiene information helps to drive quality improvement in hospitals.

Our performance

See how we measure up on hand hygiene compliance (external site).