Hand Washing

About this Measure

Hand washing is one of the simplest means to control the spread of infection in the hospital, the workplace and in your home.

Through our accreditation by The Joint Commission, Southcoast and other hospitals are required to achieve 90 percent or better compliance with hand washing as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. We consider hand washing to be a patient and employee safety expectation.

A higher score is better for this measure.

Hand Washing Compliance	Southcoast	Benchmark
Higher = better
Measure is listed as percentage of staff compliance with hand washing expectations for all staff observed. Benchmark source: The Joint Commission Last reporting period: September 2007 View detail.	99.0%	90.0%

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What is a Benchmark?

Southcoast compares all of its internal quality measures against benchmarks to help gauge our performance. Benchmarks are usually an external suitable comparison group, such as a national average, or an expected target set by an external agency. When none are available, Southcoast sets its own internal performance goals.

This benchmark: A comparative benchmark for hand washing is not available at this time. The Joint Commission, the organization that accredits health care organizations, requires a minimum of 90 percent compliance.

What Does This Mean?

Southcoast employees, volunteers and physicians are performing better than national expectations for hand washing compliance. Hand washing helps to control the spread of infection. Our ultimate goal is to reach 100 percent compliance for hand washing requirements.

What Southcoast is Doing to Improve this Measure

Download a PDF poster.

Southcoast has installed hundreds of waterless soap dispensers throughout the hospitals and clinics to make hand washing quick and easy for our employees, physicians and visitors. We strongly encourage visitors to use these waterless soap dispensers when coming into the hospital and upon leaving the hospital.

We regularly monitor our staff for compliance with hand washing compliance.

We strongly encourage patients to ask their caregiver, "Did you wash your hands before coming to care for me?" A friendly reminder by patients will be helpful to our staff members.

A Note About Our Data

All data on this site are aggregate data for all Southcoast Hospitals sites.

Trend for this Measure

This chart shows how this measure has changed over the past eight months.

Contact Us

Quality and patient safety is extremely important to Southcoast Hospitals. Let us know whether this information is helpful or how we could better serve you.

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