Joint Commission, Eight Hospitals Tackle Hand-washing Failures

To improve compliance, new strategies being tested include: Holding everyone accountable—doctors, nurses, food service staff, housekeepers, chaplains, technicians, and therapists; using a reliable method to measure performance; communicate frequently and use real time performance feedback; and tailor education in proper hand hygiene for specific disciplines.

"Hand washing in hospitals should become as automatic as looking both ways before crossing the street," says William D. Petasnick, president/CEO of Froedtert. "As we achieve successful and sustainable progress in improving this long-standing issue, I'm confident hospitals can apply the same collaborative techniques and process improvement tools to other complex patient safety issues."

The next center project will target breakdowns in hand-off communications. The hospitals involved in that project are: Fairview Health Services, Intermountain Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, Partners HealthCare System, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and Stanford Hospital & Clinics. Future projects will focus on improving infection control, mix-ups in patient identification, and medication errors.