Championing safer patient care for WHHD

Good hand hygiene prevents up to 50% of healthcare-acquired infections, according to the World Health Organisation - and research carried out by Essity reveals that eight out of 10 healthcare professionals would like to improve their hand hygiene compliance.

Essity’s Tork brand is calling on all healthcare organisations around the globe to establish an ‘institutional safety climate’ as it prepares to recognise this year’s World Hand Hygiene Day. The aim of the move would be to encourage hand hygiene role models and build safer patient environments.

“Proper hand hygiene saves lives,” said Essity Professional Hygiene’s marketing director healthcare, Thomas Bergin. “It’s the collective responsibility of everyone within healthcare worldwide to maintain high standards and fostering a culture of institutional safety within healthcare organisations keeps hand hygiene top of mind.”

In order to support healthcare professionals and enable safer healthcare environments, Essity has developed Tork Clean Hands Training in collaboration with behavioural scientists and world- leading hand hygiene experts. Tork Clean Hands Training invites users into a digital world where they can interact and train using WHO’s own ‘My five moments of hand hygiene’ in a realistic environment. Accessed almost 15,000 times since the end of 2019, Tork Clean Hands Training empowers healthcare professionals to achieve the highest possible safety standards. Also from Tork are a range of soaps, hand towels and hand sanitisers along with a useful dispenser placement guide based on WHO’s ‘My five moments of hand hygiene’.

“Research shows that hand hygiene dispensers have a significant impact on compliance rates, and the key to success is making sure they are correctly placed,” continued Bergin. WWW.TORK.CO.UK