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Barriers and Opportunities for Sustainable Hand Hygiene Interventions in Rural Liberian Hospitals

Hand hygiene is central to hospital infection control. During the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola virus disease epidemic in Liberia, gaps in hand hygiene infrastructure and health worker training contributed to hospital-based Ebola transmission. Hand hygiene interventions were undertaken post-Ebola, but...

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Autores principales: Tantum, Lucy K., Gilstad, John R., Bolay, Fatorma K., Horng, Lily M., Simpson, Alpha D., Letizia, Andrew G., Styczynski, Ashley R., Luby, Stephen P., Arthur, Ronan F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8391939/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34444337
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168588
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author Tantum, Lucy K.
Gilstad, John R.
Bolay, Fatorma K.
Horng, Lily M.
Simpson, Alpha D.
Letizia, Andrew G.
Styczynski, Ashley R.
Luby, Stephen P.
Arthur, Ronan F.
author_facet Tantum, Lucy K.
Gilstad, John R.
Bolay, Fatorma K.
Horng, Lily M.
Simpson, Alpha D.
Letizia, Andrew G.
Styczynski, Ashley R.
Luby, Stephen P.
Arthur, Ronan F.
author_sort Tantum, Lucy K.
collection PubMed
description Hand hygiene is central to hospital infection control. During the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola virus disease epidemic in Liberia, gaps in hand hygiene infrastructure and health worker training contributed to hospital-based Ebola transmission. Hand hygiene interventions were undertaken post-Ebola, but many improvements were not sustainable. This study characterizes barriers to, and facilitators of, hand hygiene in rural Liberian hospitals and evaluates readiness for sustainable, locally derived interventions to improve hand hygiene. Research enumerators collected data at all hospitals in Bong and Lofa counties, Liberia, in the period March–May 2020. Enumerators performed standardized spot checks of hand hygiene infrastructure and supplies, structured observations of hand hygiene behavior, and semi-structured key informant interviews for thematic analysis. During spot checks, hospital staff reported that handwashing container water was always available in 89% (n = 42) of hospital wards, piped running water in 23% (n = 11), and soap in 62% (n = 29). Enumerators observed 5% of wall-mounted hand sanitizer dispensers (n = 8) and 95% of pocket-size dispensers (n = 53) to be working. In interviews, hospital staff described willingness to purchase personal hand sanitizer dispensers when hospital-provided supplies were unavailable. Low-cost, sustainable interventions should address supply and infrastructure-related obstacles to hospital hand hygiene improvement.
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spelling pubmed-83919392021-08-28 Barriers and Opportunities for Sustainable Hand Hygiene Interventions in Rural Liberian Hospitals Tantum, Lucy K. Gilstad, John R. Bolay, Fatorma K. Horng, Lily M. Simpson, Alpha D. Letizia, Andrew G. Styczynski, Ashley R. Luby, Stephen P. Arthur, Ronan F. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Hand hygiene is central to hospital infection control. During the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola virus disease epidemic in Liberia, gaps in hand hygiene infrastructure and health worker training contributed to hospital-based Ebola transmission. Hand hygiene interventions were undertaken post-Ebola, but many improvements were not sustainable. This study characterizes barriers to, and facilitators of, hand hygiene in rural Liberian hospitals and evaluates readiness for sustainable, locally derived interventions to improve hand hygiene. Research enumerators collected data at all hospitals in Bong and Lofa counties, Liberia, in the period March–May 2020. Enumerators performed standardized spot checks of hand hygiene infrastructure and supplies, structured observations of hand hygiene behavior, and semi-structured key informant interviews for thematic analysis. During spot checks, hospital staff reported that handwashing container water was always available in 89% (n = 42) of hospital wards, piped running water in 23% (n = 11), and soap in 62% (n = 29). Enumerators observed 5% of wall-mounted hand sanitizer dispensers (n = 8) and 95% of pocket-size dispensers (n = 53) to be working. In interviews, hospital staff described willingness to purchase personal hand sanitizer dispensers when hospital-provided supplies were unavailable. Low-cost, sustainable interventions should address supply and infrastructure-related obstacles to hospital hand hygiene improvement. MDPI 2021-08-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8391939/ /pubmed/34444337 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168588 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Tantum, Lucy K.
Gilstad, John R.
Bolay, Fatorma K.
Horng, Lily M.
Simpson, Alpha D.
Letizia, Andrew G.
Styczynski, Ashley R.
Luby, Stephen P.
Arthur, Ronan F.
Barriers and Opportunities for Sustainable Hand Hygiene Interventions in Rural Liberian Hospitals
title Barriers and Opportunities for Sustainable Hand Hygiene Interventions in Rural Liberian Hospitals
title_full Barriers and Opportunities for Sustainable Hand Hygiene Interventions in Rural Liberian Hospitals
title_fullStr Barriers and Opportunities for Sustainable Hand Hygiene Interventions in Rural Liberian Hospitals
title_full_unstemmed Barriers and Opportunities for Sustainable Hand Hygiene Interventions in Rural Liberian Hospitals
title_short Barriers and Opportunities for Sustainable Hand Hygiene Interventions in Rural Liberian Hospitals
title_sort barriers and opportunities for sustainable hand hygiene interventions in rural liberian hospitals
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8391939/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34444337
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168588
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