Video Surveillance of Hand Hygiene: A Better Tool for Monitoring and Ensuring Hand Hygiene Adherence

Introduction: Hand hygiene practice, as correctly said, is the backbone of infection control and it has been proven to limit infections in hospital settings. Currently most healthcare facilities monitor hand hygiene compliance by direct observation technique. We decided to use video surveillance as a tool to monitor hand hygiene compliance and its impact. Materials and Methods:This study was conducted over a period of 6 months from March 2018 to August 2018 at Apex Hospital, Jaipur, India. We compared direct observation of KU, High Dependency Units, and Emergency with video surveillance in these areas. Results and Observations: In this study, direct observation and video audit were compared from March 2018 to August 2018. During March to August, average compliance rates of direct observation and video surveillance were compared. In month of march, they were 67% and 20%, respectively and in the month of august, they were 81% and 47%, respectively. Conclusion: In our study, We can conclude in our study that video monitoring combined with direct observation can produce a significant and sustained improvement in hand hygiene compliance and can improve quality of patient care.