The Use of Instructional Technology to Increase Independent Patient Hand Hygiene Practice of Hospitalized Adults in an Acute Care Setting

BACKGROUND: Despite recognition that hospitalized patients carry pathogens on their hands and demonstrate poor hand hygiene practice, little attention has been given to interventions that increase hand hygiene practices. Studies that have attempted to improve patient hand hygiene practice lack sustainability due to dependability on healthcare staff, and no prior studies have tested ways to improve independent patient hand hygiene practice. One such approach is using a patient-centered multi-modal educational intervention and electronic voice-recorded reminder cue to promote self- management of hand hygiene. METHODS: This comparative effectiveness study tested two educationally-based approaches to improve patient hand hygiene in older adults hospitalized for 4 days for elective lower extremity orthopedic or podiatry surgery at a veterans’ hospital. Group 1 (n = 41) received an educational video, an educational handout and a voice-recorded electronic audio reminder (EAR) an active cue, which verbally reminded the participant to clean their hands 3 times a day (7am, 12 pm, 5pm). Group 2 (n = 34) received the educational video and handout without the EAR. There were no significant differences between the two randomly assigned groups in terms of age, ethnicity and sex. RESULTS: Figure 1 shows the daily difference in product consumption Day 0 to Day 3. The average product consumption of ABHR (alcohol-based hand rub) in Group 1 (EAR) was 29.97 grams (SD 17.13). Group 2 (No EAR) averaged 10.88 grams (9.27) (P < 0.0001). Comparing post-operative day (POD) 0 to POD 3, and controlling for covariates (Disability of Arm, Shoulder, and Hand [QuickDASH], Hand Grip Strength, Surgical Pain, MRSA in Nares, and Education), multivariate analyses indicated that the electronic audio reminder was a significant predictor (β=.468) of ABHR consumption, R(2) = .39, R(2)adj. = .34, F (6, 68) = 7.265, P < .001. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that a short educational intervention that included a video, a handout, and a verbal audio reminder has the potential to increase patient-centered infection prevention in the acute care settings without increasing the workload of healthcare workers. Findings can be used for future infection prevention studies in institutionalized patients to improve self-managed care. DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.