Sustainable Hand Hygiene Efforts; a Review of a Successful Campaign.

Aim: The aim of this paper is to provide a review of the hand hygiene literature and to give an example of the use of this literature to create a multimodal sustainable hand hygiene program. Background: The literature describes six key ingredients to consider when designing a hand hygiene program. These ingredients include leadership engagement, environmental assessment, education, a tight feedback loop, communication and routine revitalization. Programs tend to be more successful when several of these ingredients are utilized. Program Implementation: The multimodal program created and implemented at one academic medical center is described. This program is an example of using the six key ingredients found in the literature with an interesting marketing and revitalization strategy. Conclusion: The literature offers strategies that have led to successful programs in the past. The multimodal use of these strategies was demonstrated in the creation of a successful hand hygiene program at one academic medical center.