Using patients' observations to evaluate healthcare workers' alcohol-based hand rub with Pulpe'friction audits: a promising approach?

BACKGROUND: Hand hygiene plays an important role in the transmission of nosocomial infections from healthcare workers (HCW) to patients. Patients could play a key role in improving hand hygiene by sharing their experience of the HCW's practices. Already in 2019, the French national mission of transversal support for actions to prevent healthcare-associated infections proposed the national "Pulpe'friction" audit, to assess HCW's reported practices, social representations, and barriers to using alcohol-based hand rubs (ABHR). This audit consisted of a positive discussion between an auditor and the HCW as well as patients, which led the HCW to declare their real practices and the barriers they faced in the field and the patients to report about the HCW's ABHR practices and the information they received about when they should perform hand hygiene.

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether an association existed between HCW's reported ABHR compliance and patients' declarations about HCW's compliance in the Pulpe'friction audit data.

METHODS: Data from Pulpe'friction were collected from 1st January to 31st December 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Mixed linear models were performed to analyze the association between self-reporting by HCW and patients, regarding hand rubs performed by HCW prior to patient care.

RESULTS: There was a positive association between patients' observations and HCW's declared practices regarding the frequency of with which professionals performed hand rubs before patient contact. This indicates that professional and patient statements show the same tendency. The positive association was found in hospitals for patients under 45 and over 64 years old and for paramedics, but not for physicians and not in nursing homes or long-term care facilities. Patients felt more motivated to observe and evaluate HCWs' practices if they had received information about how to correctly wash their hands.

CONCLUSION: Patients agreed to be involved in the evaluation or professional practices. The patients' observations were positively associated with HCWs reports. New indicators taking patients' observations into account could be interesting.