Background

Too many of the vulnerable individuals admitted to health-care settings develop a health-care associated infection (HAI). This results in increased morbidity and mortality, prolonged hospital stay, and financial losses for health care systems [1, 2]. Additionally, prevention of transmission and control of multidrug-resistant organisms in health care settings are critical as the number of antibiotics available to treat these infections is limited [3]. Many of these issues could be prevented through simple, low-cost infection prevention and control (IPC) measures such as hand hygiene performed at critical moments [4, 5].

The focus of the World Health Organization (WHO) SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands global campaign has been to promote best hand hygiene practices as a key component of achieving quality of care and patient safety [6,7,8,9,10,11]. This campaign, launched in 2009 and celebrated annually on the 5th of May, features specific calls to action each year, and seeks to increase engagement from stakeholders’ collaborations in strenghtening IPC programmes and improving hand hygiene. This year’s campaign theme is “Clean care for all – it’s in your hands” [11] (https://www.who.int/infection-prevention/campaigns/clean-hands/en/).

‘Health for All’ has been increasingly recognized in international fora as a concept firmly based on equity. Alongside a strong global momentum surrounding universal health coverage (UHC), WHO calls on everyone to contribute to the attainment of health for all populations [12]. In the context of UHC, IPC with hand hygiene as a fundamental measure, is a key component in providing patient safety and high quality health services [12, 13].

The 2019 WHO global survey

The WHO global survey aims to assess the current level of progress of IPC programmes and hand hygiene activities in HCFs in the context of the WHO SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands annual hand hygiene global campaign (https://www.who.int/infection-prevention/campaigns/ipc-global-survey-2019/en/). The survey will be open until July 2019, and WHO invites all HCFs to join. The survey is based on the use of two tools at the HCF level: the WHO Infection Prevention and Control Assessment Framework (IPCAF) (https://www.who.int/infection-prevention/tools/core-components/IPCAF-facility.PDF?ua=1) and the WHO HHSAF (https://www.who.int/gpsc/country_work/hhsa_framework_October_2010.pdf?ua=1) [14, 15]

The IPCAF is a validated assessment tool that supports the implementation of the WHO recommendations on the core components of effective IPC programmes [16] at the acute HCF level. The goal of the framework is to assess the current IPC situation in HCFs. It is especially focused on evaluating existing IPC activities/resources, and identifying strengths and gaps that can inform future policies. It can be considered as a diagnostic tool for HCFs to detect relevant problems or shortcomings that require improvement as well as identify areas where international standards and requirements can be met [16, 17].

The HHSAF is a systematic tool with which an individual health-care facility can obtain a situational analysis of its hand hygiene promotion and practices [14, 15]. To guide future improvement WHO is launching the HHSAF again in 2019 as part of the WHO global survey (the HHSAF was previously launched in 2011 and 2015) (https://www.who.int/infection-prevention/campaigns/ipc-global-survey-2019/en/).

Assesing the level of hand hygiene at your institution

Measuring, promoting, improving, and subsequently sustaining hand hygiene standards as quality indicators for patient safety is essential [18]. To advance this agenda, it is crucial to monitor where improvements have occurred and gaps must be addressed in hand hygiene structures, processes, resources, promotion and practices [19, 20].

WHO provides a range of tools and resources to sustain hand hygiene improvement. One is the Hand Hygiene Self-Assessment Framework (HHSAF), which is a validated tool used to quantify the status of hand hygiene promotion activities within healthcare facilities worldwide [14, 15]. Launched by WHO in 2010, the HHSAF is available in different languages; it remains the most widely used tool and the only framework aimed at tracking the level of progress of healthcare facilties in the context of hand hygiene implementation. Structured around the five components of the WHO Multimodal Hand Hygiene Improvement Strategy (see Appendix), the HHSAF assesses the interventions implemented by HCFs in the context of their adherence to WHO hand hygiene guidelines and recommendations [18,19,20]. The HHSAF analyses a number of factors within each of the five components of the multimodal strategy and scores institutions’ status as inadequate, basic, intermediate and advanced, according to the number of points obtained (see Appendix). Additionally, it directs HCFs to the WHO hand hygiene promotion tools and the template action plans (available at https://www.who.int/infection-prevention/tools/hand-hygiene/en/) that can be used to make improvement plans according to the HHSAF score and specific indicators identified as requiring attention.

Given this important focus on hand hygiene in IPC programmes, the WHO previously conducted two global surveys using the HHSAF in 2011 and 2015, inviting HCFs worldwide to submit their self-assessments [21]. The two surveys offered a bird’s eye view of hand hygiene programmes at the HCF level and enabled better comparisons across regions and over time, prompting calls for further improvements. In 2011, the majority of HCFs participating were from developed countries and reflected an intermediate level of progress. When the survey was repeated in 2015, the overall score increased significantly (p < 0.001) in the 86 HCFs that participated in both surveys [21]. Improvement was documented in all regions, particularly in the Eastern Mediterranean region, Europe and the Americas. The African region scored lowest, which could be indicative of a poorer IPC infrastructure, resources and basic knowledge in hand hygiene implementation and issues concerning sustainability. The disparities that emerged from the two global HHSAF surveys emphasize the need for additional improvement of hand hygiene practices, especially in low-resource settings.

Supporting hand hygiene education and training

To support education and training activities around the global survey, WHO, together with the WHO Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety, developed a body of material including an educational video (available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDz8kxrPaMk&feature=youtu.be), a promotional video (available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfH6ODLV3BI) and three case scenario-based simulations (Tables 1, 2 and 3) for IPC specialists to simulate and fully assimilate the correct completion of the HHSAF framework in a standardized format. Simulation in health care is widely used in medical education as an active learning method and it has been shown to have great potential [22,23,24].

Table 1 Case Scenario 1 to simulate the completion of the WHO Hand Hygiene Self Assessment Framework (HHSAF)
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Table 2 Case Scenario 2 to simulate the completion of the WHO Hand Hygiene Self Assessment Framework (HHSAF)
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Table 3 Case Scenario 3 to simulate the completion of the WHO Hand Hygiene Self Assessment Framework (HHSAF)
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The case scenarios presented here can be used by professionals in charge of implementing a hand hygiene improvement strategy within their facility, as well as for simulation and standardized training purposes prior to completing and submitting data for the 2009 WHO Global Survey. As proposed by the WHO Guide to Implementation, information provided through the use of the HHSAF should be translated into action plans to support the implementation and improvement related to specific indicators of hand hygiene promotion [19, 20]. HCFs worldwide should consider implementing a system of continuous assessment of hand hygiene improvement strategy [21] by utilizing the HHSAF tool systematically; the current recommendation by WHO and experts is to use it at least annually.

Information appropriate for each of the WHO Multimodal Hand Hygiene Improvement Strategy components has been identified in the case scenarios (Tables 1, 2 and 3). In order to simulate the completion of the HHSAF, they provide details regarding HH promotion strategy for the evaluation of resources, promotion, and practices within a given HCF. The three case scenarios took in consideration a range of HCFs around the world in a variety of contexts, regardless of the resources available. Drawing from the information provided, a score is assigned for each component and section. The sum of the maximum values in each section is 100 points, adding up to a maximum overall score of 500 points. Based on the overall score, a HCF is then assigned to one of four levels of hand hygiene implementation progress (see Appendix). The HCF presented in Table 1 scored as Advanced, and can therefore undergo further Leadership assessment according to twenty additional criteria, but since only ten of them have been met, the HCF is not classified as having reached the Leadership level. Information for baseline evaluation of hand hygiene activities within a lower income setting is presented in Table 2; based on the overall score, the HCF would be assigned as Inadequate level of progress. The HCF in Table 3 is assigned to Basic level, identifying the need for significant improvement. The use of HHSAF over time will enable HCFs to keep track of their progress and continuously set new targets for improvement.

Conclusion

The foremost objective of the WHO global annual campaign is to prioritize IPC in health care and the global health agenda, with hand hygiene assessment and improvement playing a fundamental role in ensuring patient safety. We invite all HCFs to be actively engaged in this important endeavour and call upon all those who can contribute towards achieving high-quality health care and universal health coverage for the improvement of public health worldwide.

“Clean care for all – it’s in your hands”