Hand Hygiene
Did you know that four out of five illness-causing germs are spread by hands? That's why hand hygiene is crucial for preventing infections, especially for healthcare providers. Studies show that proper hand hygiene can significantly reduce hospital infections. At Michigan Medicine, healthcare professionals are required to wash their hands or use hand sanitizer before and after every patient contact. If you notice someone neglecting hand hygiene, feel free to remind them or report your concerns or compliments online. Keeping hands clean is vital to avoid illness and prevent germ spread.
The Right Way to Wash Your Hands
With soap and water:
- Wet your hands with clean running water and apply soap. Use warm water if it is available.
- Rub hands together to make a lather and scrub all surfaces.
- Continue rubbing hands for 15 seconds.
- Rinse hands well under running water.
- Dry your hands using a paper towel or air dryer. If possible, use your paper towel to turn off the faucet.
If soap and clean water are not available and/or your hands are not visibly soiled, you can use an alcohol-based hand rub to clean your hands. Alcohol-based hand rubs significantly reduce the number of germs on skin and are fast acting. (Remember: alcohol-based hand rubs not effective against spore-forming bacteria as C. Difficile.)
Using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer:
- Apply 1 pump of product to the palm of one hand.
- Rub hands together.
- Rub the product over all surfaces of hands and fingers until hands are dry.
Make sure your hands are completely dry prior to putting on gloves.
Wash your hands with soap and water when you feel a “build-up” of emollients on your hands.
When should health care providers wash their hands?
Health care providers are expected to clean their hands with waterless hand sanitizer or soap and water:
- Upon entering and exiting the room of hospitalized patients
- Before touching each patient, whether or not gloves are worn
- After touching each patient
- After glove removal
- Between activities on the same patient, for example, after a dressing change and before urinary or catheter care
- After touching items soiled with blood or body fluid, such as wound dressings or bedpans
- Before handling medications
- Before preparing food
- After personal activities, such as, use of the toilet, coughing or sneezing
When should patients/visitors wash their hands?
Patient and visitors should wash their hands:
- Before eating. Use waterless hand sanitizer if in your car
- Before, during and after handling or preparing food
- After changing a diaper
- After you use the bathroom
- After handling animals, their toys, leashes or waste
- After touching something that could be contaminated (such as a trash can, cleaning cloth, drain, or soil)
- After sneezing, coughing or blowing your nose
- Before dressing a wound, giving medicine or inserting contact lenses
- More often when someone in your home is sick
- Whenever they look or feel dirty.
- Whenever you visit someone in the hospital or nursing home.
Remember, too, the importance of hand hygiene if you are providing care for a loved one at home or in the hospital. Clean your hands before and after every contact.
Hand Hygiene: Frequently Asked Questions
Washing your hands is one of the most important things you and your family can do to prevent illness. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hand hygiene is the single most important means of preventing the spread of infection.
Clean hands can help protect you from infectious and food-borne illnesses. If you get sick, it can also keep you from passing your illness to others.
Most people don’t realize that four out of five germs that cause illness are spread by hands. Hand washing protects your health by removing the dirt and germs that get on your hands during almost all activities.
If you don't wash your hands, the germs on your hands can get into your mouth, nose, eyes, cuts and scrapes - even your food - and make you sick.
Even if your hands look clean, they can still have dirt and germs on them. Germs are too small to see with the human eye. They can only be seen through a microscope.
More than 20 published studies have shown that alcohol-based hand rubs are much more effective than either plain or antimicrobial soap in reducing the number of bacteria on the hands.
Alcohol-based hand rubs are a good option because they are a convenient way to get rid of germs when your hands are not visibly soiled. Because water, soap and towels are not needed, hand sanitizers can be taken with you and used any time and any place.
For example, hand sanitizers can be carried in your purse, backpack and in your car. And of course, they can be kept throughout your home or office - giving you and your family a convenient way to get rid of the germs on your hands.
No! In fact, studies have proven that nurses who routinely cleaned their hands between patients by using an alcohol-based hand rub had less skin irritation and dryness than people who washed their hands with soap and water. Many alcohol-based hand rubs contain moisturizers (emollients) that help prevent dryness.
Some people have advocated that you should wash your hands after every four or five uses of alcohol-based hand rub. But, there is no reason to do this. If your hands feel 'grubby' or are visibly dirty, you should wash them with soap and water.
Wash with soap and water when your hands are visibly soiled and when you feel like there is something on your hands. You can use an alcohol-based hand rub at all other times.
The typical alcohol-based hand rub containers are small and don’t contain a large quantity of the product, their contribution to the development, acceleration or spread of fire in most situations is small. It's best to keep open flames away from bottles of alcohol-based hand rubs and from your hands after using an alcohol-based hand rub until it has completely dried to further reduce the risk of fire.
No. Many people have heard about this problem with antibacterial products which contain antibiotics and can contribute to making bacteria resistant. One advantage of alcohol-based hand sanitizers is that they do not contain antibiotics, so they will not make bacteria more resistant.
So far, no studies have shown this. They have found that alcohol levels found in the blood after using alcohol-based hand rubs is insignificant.
You should be involved in all aspects of your care and you should feel comfortable asking your health care provider if they have washed their hands before they take care of you.
