Hand Hygiene Compliance

In health care settings, hand hygiene is the single most important way to prevent infections and the spread of antimicrobial resistance. Alcohol-based hand sanitizing is the preferred method for decontaminating hands when they are not visibly soiled. Hand washing with soap and running water is necessary when hands are visibly soiled.

Hand hygiene compliance is required in the following four situations:

• Before initial patient/environment contact
• Before an aseptic procedure (a procedure that involves the touching or manipulation of a patient's body or invasive device that could result in infection)
• After potential exposure to bodily fluids
• After patient/environment contact

At this time, hand hygiene compliance for before initial patient/environment contact and after patient/environment contact will be publicly reported.

For more information on hand hygiene, please see the Province of Ontario fact sheet.

The Heart Institute's hand hygiene compliance rates are available here (pdf).