A multifaceted hand hygiene improvement program on the intensive care units of the National Referral Hospital of Indonesia in Jakarta

BACKGROUND: Hand hygiene (HH) is considered to be the single most effective measure in preventing healthcare-associated infections. However, HH compliance rates among nurses and doctors in hospitals are often very low. Few studies have addressed HH compliance in Indonesia, performed interventions to increase HH compliance, and none have had long-term follow-up. We, therefore, addressed this issue by performing long-term follow-up after a multifaceted intervention in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting. METHODS: This was an observational, prospective, before-and-after intervention study (May–September 2014, February–April 2017). We measured HH knowledge and HH compliance before (at baseline) and directly after a multifaceted improvement program (post-intervention) and performed a re-evaluation three years later. The multifaceted improvement program included education, feedback, reminders, interviews and the use of role models. The study involved nurses and physicians working in two ICUs of the Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in Jakarta. RESULTS: A total of 97 at baseline, and 72 at post-intervention HH knowledge questionnaires were completed. There was a statistically significant improvement in the median overall HH knowledge score at post-intervention (from 15 to 22, p < 0.001). There was no significant difference between the two ICUs. The overall HH compliance was 27% at baseline and significantly improved to 77% post-intervention (p < 0.001). For all five HH moments, the compliance of nurses and physicians separately improved significantly from the baseline phase to the post-intervention phase (p < 0.001), except for ‘moment 3’ (after body fluid exposure), for which baseline rates were already high. Most of the compliance rates were significantly lower in both groups of healthcare workers upon follow-up three years later. Overall, the HH compliance of the nurses was significantly better than the physicians’ compliance (p = 0.005). CONCLUSIONS: Our multifaceted improvement program, for nurses and physicians of the ICUs in the largest hospital of Indonesia, resulted in a significant improvement of the HH knowledge and HH compliance, but HH compliance levels waned over time after the intervention, indicating a need for continued monitoring and repeated interventions. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was registered at www.trialregister.nl (No: 5541). Candidate number: 23527, NTR number: NTR5541, Date registered NTR: 22-DECEMBER-2015. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13756-019-0540-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.