1193. Assessing Sustainability of Hand Hygiene Adherence 5 Years after a Contest-Based Intervention in 3 Japanese Hospitals

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the 5-year sustainability of a multimodal intervention which included a prize to the hospital with the highest overall hand hygiene adherence rates among healthcare workers. METHODS: Design: An observational study using direct observation of hand hygiene adherence performed by a trained observer coupled with a survey of healthcare workers about their knowledge of hand hygiene practices. Setting: Three Japanese tertiary care hospitals. Study Population: Physicians and nurses working on an inpatient medical or surgical ward, an intensive care unit (ICU), or the emergency department. Outcome Measures: Hand hygiene adherence rates before patient contact using unobtrusive direct observation. Secondary outcomes were survey responses on a World Health Organization (WHO) questionnaire on hand hygiene. RESULTS: Data for the current study were collected between September and December 2017 at the 3 participating hospitals. An additional 2,485 observations were conducted during this 5-year post-intervention assessment. These observations were compared with 2,679 observations from the pre-intervention period, and 2,982 observations from the 6-month post-intervention period. Hand hygiene adherence rates had previously improved significantly after the introduction of a multimodal intervention – based on principles recommend by the WHO – in 2012 and 2013 in 3 Japanese hospitals (18.0% pre-intervention to 32.7% 6-months post-intervention; P < 0.001). No significant changes were found in hand hygiene adherence in these hospitals 5 years after the original intervention (31.9% 5-years post-intervention; P = 0.53); however, substantial variability in hand hygiene adherence by unit and healthcare worker type was noted. CONCLUSION: A multimodal hand hygiene initiative achieved sustained improvement in hand hygiene adherence in 3 Japanese hospitals 5 years after the original intervention. [Image: see text] DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.