The Medical City's Hand Hygiene Campaign Gains International Recognition

Joint Commission International, the world’s most prestigious accrediting body for healthcare organizations, has chosen The Medical City (TMC) to be part of its expanded Hand Hygiene Project.

TMC is the only hospital in the Philippines chosen to be part of the program. It joins eight other internationally accredited health institutions in JCI’s expanded Hand Hygiene Project which aims to improve hand hygiene compliance to reduce the frequency of healthcare associated infections.

“This is a welcome development and we are 100 percent committed to this project,” said Dr. Jose M. Acuin, Director of TMC’s Medial Quality Improvement Office. “TMC’s inclusion to the expanded Hand Hygiene Project comes at a time when the hospital is intensifying its own hand hygiene campaign.”

In November 2011, TMC took its hand hygiene process to the next level through the implementation of the electronic monitoring of hand hygiene practices in the hospital’s intensive care unit, the unit with the highest risk for hospital acquired or healthcare associated infections (HAI) based on previous studies. After three months, hand hygiene compliance at ICU was recorded at 80%.

TMC’s intensified hand hygiene campaign also covered other hospital units as well. Meetings were held to teach and practice the appropriate hand washing technique. Alcohol-based hand rub dispensers were also made available at the point of care. “Wash Your Hands and Stay Healthy” posters could be found in all patient rooms in the ICU, all nursing units and in various departments to increase hand hygiene awareness.

The JCI, through the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare, launched its Hand Hygiene Project in 2009 involving eight leading hospitals in the United States.

The eight US hospitals, which include The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in California, collaborated and identified specific factors that contribute to hand hygiene non-compliance. The health care organizations also came up with improvement solutions to address these factors. Findings and methods used were validated before these were incorporated into the Targeted Solutions Tool™ (TST) by the Center. TST is an application or tool necessary specific barriers to excellent performance and better compliance.

In August 2010, the eight participating US hospitals reported their hand hygiene compliance rates at about 82 percent.

JCI’s Hand Hygiene Project has now expanded beyond the United States to include The Medical City, Al Amal Hospital in Doha, Qatar; Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria (S Maria della Misericordia) di Udine in Udine, Italy; Institute Jantung Negara (National Heart Institute) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Premier Jatinegara Hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia; Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi, UAE and UZ Leuven in Leuven, Belgium.

These international pilot healthcare organizations were chosen based on representation in all types of organizations and regions in which JCI accredits; organization size and scope of services; organizational motivation and commitment to participation.

Starting last April 2012, the JCI expanded project called TST Pilot Project began and the pilot organizations started using the Hand Hygiene tool to measure and improve their hand hygiene compliance.

The signatories to the TST Pilot Project charter at TMC include President and CEO Dr. Alfredo R. A. Bengzon as sponsor; Medical Quality Improvement Office (MQIO) Medical Director Dr. Jose M. Acuin as physician champion; Hospital Infection Control Committee (HICC) head Dr. Maria Fe R. Tayzon as clinical expert who is also chairperson of the Department of Medicine; Nursing Services Office (NSO) Training Manager Ronne D. Abeleda as process owner; Infection Control Manager Victoria I. Ching as project leader and Khenna D.A. Jimenez as project back-up leader.