Hand Hygiene

Infection Prevention Solutions

touched by staff whilst caring for the service user e.g. monitors, knobs and buttons, chair handles, computer keyboards, telephones etc.

The patient zone is not static – it changes as the service user is moved from place to place and the zone accompanies the individual where-ever he / she goes e.g. from the chair to examination couch etc.

The health-care area corresponds to all surfaces in the health-care setting outside the patient zone i.e. other patients and their zones and the wider health-care environment. This environment still poses a risk – particularly from staff who may acquire micro-organisms within the wider health-care environment that are then transferred to service users when the staff member enters the patient zone to provide direct care. Examples include: dirty utility areas, treatment rooms, toilets, waste disposal areas etc.

In the primary care environment there are a number of occasions when clinical care is delivered in settings that are not deemed to be health care areas e.g. in the patient’s own home. These environments cannot be controlled. However, hand hygiene CAN be controlled and should be used as the first line of defence against micro-organism transmission in ANY environment where clinical care is delivered.

When should hands be decontaminated?

Given what we now know about the environment within which the patient is cared for e.g. the patient zone, how do we decide when to decontaminate our hands?

There is a useful principle to apply:

• What did I just do that could have contaminated my hands? • What am I about to do that could transfer micro-organisms to the patient?