1188. Calibrating a Product Use Metric for Hand Hygiene Compliance

BACKGROUND: Measuring hand hygiene (HH) by soap and alcohol hand rub product use is a relatively inexpensive and comprehensive way to estimate hand hygiene episodes per unit of patient care. Translating this number to compliance requires a reliable target for full compliance. Published data on this are few. The our objective of this study was to calibrate estimates of HH targeted performance across diverse inpatient medical unit types based on actual product use data. METHODS: Retrospective review of monthly product use and patient volumes in 8 diverse hospitals in central Pennsylvania from 2017 through March 2019. RESULTS: Over 27 months we calculated 98.2 million HH episodes. Months with no dispenser changes recorded were dropped from consideration, as were months with extraordinarily high replacement counts secondary to remodeling or product expiration. To further correct for variations within and between units, the median and 95(th) percentile are used. Medians represent observed compliance between 60 and 85% (see table). Given the month to month product use variation, using a 3-month reporting window is appropriate to keep this estimate to ±10%. Using these values for full compliance, the 3-month average rarely exceeds the maximum of 100%. CONCLUSION: The product use values recorded here exceed published targets in half of the observed months. By adjusting the target for full compliance to the 95th percentile for the unit type, hand hygiene feedback by patient care area can more accurately estimate actual performance. As compliance improves further, recalibration will again be required. [Image: see text] DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.