Strict adherence to hand hygiene policies and procedures is one of the best ways of preventing infections and decrease infection rates at a hospital. ABC Healthcare Center offers different healthcare services to the locals. The quality of service delivery is directly influenced by hand hygiene practices that the facility embraces. According to Bowie and Green (2016), hand hygiene within a hospital setting is a requirement that should not only be met by the medical staff but also the patients and visitors who come to the facility.
Developing a plan on how different stakeholders should meet this requirement is critical in enhancing the success of this facility. Standards that should be met and the responsibility of every stakeholder should be defined in very clear terms. In this action plan, the focus is to discuss ways of improving adherence with hand hygiene policies and procedures at ABC Healthcare Facility.
Discussion
The United States Department of Health and Human Services has set clear principles and procedures relating to hand hygiene that hospitals and individual healthcare providers must meet at all times to enhance the quality of service delivery.
According to Burns, Bradley, Weiner, Shortell, and Kaluzny (2012), while the government sets these standards, it is the responsibility of every management at all healthcare centers in the country to develop their internal policies and procedures that would help improve adherence with the set standards. The management must also develop clear plans that would help ensure that patients and their visitors follow these plans to eliminate infections. In this section, the researcher will look at how the management of ABC Healthcare Center can improve adherence to hygiene policies and procedures.
Promoting a Culture of Hand Hygiene
One of the best ways of improving adherence with hand hygiene policies and procedures at the hospital is to promote a culture of hand hygiene. In this context, the management would need to create a standard practice for nurses, doctors, clinical officers, and the support staff on the one hand, and patients and their visitors on the other hand. The medical staff often understands the code of conduct expected of them, including the level of hygiene they need to maintain.
The management would need to integrate these standards into the culture that the organization embraces. For instance, doctors and nurses should strictly ensure that they wash their hands when moving from one patient to another within the wards, especially when handling those with contagious diseases. The level of hygiene in surgical rooms should be impeccable (Burns et al., 2012). Standard practice requires that every staff member understand his or her obligation in such rooms to avoid any complications caused by contamination.
Maintaining a culture of hand hygiene among patients and visitors may be a little challenging. However, it will be the responsibility of nurses to ensure that patients and their visitors adhere to the standard practices set by the hospital. Patients should be reminded constantly that they have to wash their hands every time they come from the toilet. They should also know that they have to before eating anything they have to wash their hands, including utensils such as spoons and knives.
Goldsmith (2014) explains that they should understand the fact that these standard practices are set to benefit them and their close family members. People tend to follow policies and procedures when they know that they will benefit from them. Visitors who come to the hospital should also understand the hospital’s hand hygiene policies and practices. It may not be possible to address these visitors in the same manner as patients because of the limited time they spend in this facility. Instead, strategically placed posters can be placed within the wards and paths that they follow when going to visit their patients reminding them of the need to maintain hand hygiene. The nurse in charge of specific wards can also remind them to maintain hand hygiene when getting into the wards and when leaving.
Improve the Environment within the Hospital
Maintaining hand hygiene can only be possible when the workplace environment is supportive of the practice. According to Lambert (2016), some healthcare facilities are so poorly maintained that it may not be possible to embrace the hand hygiene policies. It is the responsibility of the management, through the repairs, maintenance department, to ensure that the hospital sink and relevant suppliers are in the right condition.
Any blockage should be unclogged as soon as it is detected to make the environment sustainable. Perley (2016) explains that sometimes it is appropriate to have both the warm and cold water system running as a way of facilitating the practice. Bathrooms and toilets within the facility should be clean at all times as an assurance to the patients that the facility has high standards of hygiene.
Measure the Current Practice
The management can set guidelines that should be followed by the staff to ensure that hand hygiene policies and procedures are observed. However, it is normal to find cases where some of the staff fail to observe the standards set because of laziness or any other reason. As such, the management has the responsibility of measuring the current practice to ensure that standards set are met. One of the ways of ensuring that standards are met is to conduct direct observation, as Perley (2016) observes. A nursing superintendent should conduct physical supervision of the facility to ensure that hygiene standards are met within the wards, washrooms, waiting bays, surgical rooms, and any other area that requires such levels of cleanliness to be maintained.
Electronic monitoring is another effective way of measuring current practice. Wards and other sensitive sections of the hospital should be under CCTV surveillance. Before a patient is admitted to the ward, they should be reminded of the policy of surveillance as a way of enhancing their safety and security within the facility. The strategy may compromise their privacy but it is the ultimate way of enhancing their wellbeing at the facility (Goldsmith, 2014). The supervisor can use the video footage of the wards to determine if patients and the medical staff are observing hand hygiene. If weaknesses are noted, the supervisor can engage the relevant individuals to ensure that such challenges are addressed.
Saint Leo University Core Value of Excellence
Saint Leo University core value of excellence says, “All of us, individually and collectively, work hard to ensure that our students develop the character, learn the skills, and assimilate the knowledge essential to become morally responsible leaders,” (Saint Leo University, 2019, para. 1). The statement of excellence stipulates specific issues that should be observed by an institution of healthcare to achieve set policies and procedures.
First, it emphasizes the need to promote individual and collective effort when undertaking a given activity. Every doctor, nurse, clinical officer, patient, and any visitor should know their responsibility within this institution. They should also understand that teamwork could not be ignored when trying to achieve specific goals. It means that nurses should coordinate with cleaners, patients, and visitors to ensure that the facility remains clean at all times as a way of promoting hand hygiene policies and procedures.
The statement also focuses on the need to work hard as a way of developing a character. All stakeholders, especially patients, must maintain hand hygiene practices to limit contamination. However, it may not be easy for them to embrace the character of washing their hands every time they come from the toilet and before eating anything. However, the statement reminds nurses that they should not give up on their patients (Sui & Rui, 2016).
They should be reminded of the benefits of embracing such a practice as a way of protecting them from contamination. When they see their colleagues washing their hands regularly, they will be motivated to do the same. They will develop a character that will not only help them when at the hospital but also when they are discharged. They will understand the dangers of eating anything before washing their hands. Such patients are less likely to be readmitted because of problems arising from taking contaminated food.
The statement addresses the issue of learning new skills and assimilation of knowledge as a way of improving service delivery. According to Goldsmith (2014), bar soap was popular in the past as a detergent used in washing hands.
However, the emergence of new knowledge and technology revealed that the use of shared bar soap in health facilities can be the genesis of further contamination. When one with a contaminated soap uses the bar, the next person can easily be affected. It forced many hospitals to order small bathing soaps to be used individually by patients. Large public hospitals are currently using liquid detergents in shared sinks and toilets as a way of managing the problem of infection.
The statement concludes with the need to have morally responsible leadership. Caring for patients is one of the most demanding professions in the world. Every action that a doctor, a nurse, or even a clinical officer does would define whether a patient would live or not. Sometimes one may be called upon to work for longer than normal hours, especially in sensitive departments such as surgical rooms. Perley (2016) observes that in the industrial sector, workers can postpone what needs to be done today so that they can address it at a future date. Such luxuries do not exist in the medical sector.
A patient in critical condition cannot wait another day without getting the needed medication. As such, doctors may be required to go beyond the legal and professional requirements when undertaking their duties. They have to consider ethical concerns. They should be compassionate and able to understand their unique needs. Some of the patients may not have the capacity to adhere to hand hygiene principles and practices because of their mental or physical incapacitation (Sui & Rui, 2016). A nurse may be required to go beyond the set standard of work to help such a patient. When such nurses are encouraged and appreciated by leaders within the facility, they get the motivation to offer help even when it is not legally binding them to undertake a given activity.
Conclusion
Improving adherence to hand hygiene policies and procedures at ABC Healthcare Center will be critical in improving the quality of service that it delivers to patients. The study shows that some patients suffer from contagious diseases that can easily spread from one patient to another or even to visitors and the medical staff. To avoid such a crisis, it is important to ensure that cleanliness is maintained at all times among all stakeholders who are within this facility.
Patients should be taken through some form of awareness creation to make them understand the dangers of failing to maintain hygiene in the workplace. When they realize that hygiene is for their benefit, they would feel obliged to wash their hands every time they leave the toilet and before taking any meal.
People who come to visit their patients also need to know why they must maintain hand hygiene. They also have to wash their hands before feeding their loved ones, when leaving the toilet, and whey they are leaving the wards on their way back home. It will help avoid cases where they carry the contamination back to their houses. Doctors, nurses, clinical officers, and the support staff understand the role they need to play in maintaining hand hygiene. They only need some form of motivation from the management to ensure that they follow the set guidelines and help their patients maintain high levels of cleanliness.
References
Bowie, M. J., & Green, M. A. (2016). Essentials of health information management: Principles and practices. Clinton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning.
Burns, L. R., Bradley, E. H., Weiner, B. J., Shortell, S. M., & Kaluzny, A. D. (2012). Shortell and Kaluzny’s healthcare management (6th ed.). Clifton Park, N.Y: Delmar.
Goldsmith, S. B. (2014). Understanding health care management: A case study approach. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Lambert, P. D. (Ed.). (2016). Managing arts programs in healthcare. New York, NY: Routledge.
Perley, R. (Ed.). (2016). Managing the long-term care facility: Practical approaches to providing quality care. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Saint Leo University. (2019). History, values, & catholic roots. Web.
Sui, P. L., & Rui, Z. (2016). Service quality for facilities management in hospitals. Singapore, Singapore: Springer Singapore.