What is York Central Hospital doing to improve our hand hygiene practices?
Hand hygiene is a key issue for York Central Hospital. We have already put in place a number of measures to assure that our healthcare providers are practicing good hand hygiene.
We promote hand hygiene.
Since bacteria are mostly spread through hand contact, we promote best practices for hand hygiene. All nursing staff must complete Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) learning modules on hand hygiene. The MOHLTC also has a program called Just Clean Your Hands which we actively promote at York Central Hospital.
We have increased the number of hand hygiene stations.
York Central Hospital has created easy access points for staff and visitors to practice hand hygiene. Hand sanitizer dispensers are placed in the main lobbies and in the halls on patient floors throughout the hospital. This increases the number of opportunities for our staff to practice hand hygiene.
We educate our staff.
York Central Hospital offers ongoing sessions on diseases that are most commonly spread through hand contact. We are committed to teaching proper hand hygiene and effective infection control practices to our healthcare providers. We also promote best practices regarding hand hygiene routines. We post brochures, leaflets and reminders throughout the hospital.
We work with our local health integration network and the Infectious Diseases Control Division, Public Health Branch of the York Region Health Services Department.
On a provincial level, we work with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) and the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) to continually improve system performance, particularly in the area of patient safety.
- We participate in the MOHLTC’s infection prevention and control core competencies education program.
- We use Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee best practice guidance documents.
- We have implemented the provincial Just Clean Your Hands campaign; and
- We continue to attend education sessions held by the OHA and the regional infection control networks on a variety of infection prevention and control topics.
We do internal audits.
Our Infection Prevention and Control team conduct our own internal audits on a monthly basis. When they visit patient units to do these audits they gather staff for brief overviews of the four moments, and the importance of hand hygiene. Information is reported back to each unit.
We do one-on-one staff consultation.
Managers
encourage their staff who are concerned about skin irritation to book an appointment with our Occupational Health department for clinical assessment and advice.
We have an active Infection Control committee.
We incorporate expert advice from our Infection Prevention and Control practitioners throughout the hospital. Our infection control professionals monitor infectious disease rates to look for opportunities to provide further education and promote hand hygiene best practices.
We work hard to make our hospital a safe place to be.
Patient safety is our number one priority. There are numerous checks and balances in place to ensure the safety of our hospital and the people in it. We maintain openness, accountability, and transparency through agencies like Accreditation Canada and initiatives such as the Hospital Service Accountability Agreements, past participation in Hospital Reports and now – the public reporting of patient safety indicators.
We continue to do better every day.
With the new public reporting system on a variety of infections, we can see how well we are performing and be able to put more effort into improving infection control rates if we should fall short of our goals.
At York Central Hospital, we are working together to create a culture of patient safety that involves everyone – our healthcare administration, health care professionals, and, of course, our patients and their families.
- We participate in a number of Ministry and OHA-provided education opportunities related to best practices for infection prevention and control.
- The monitoring of prevention best practices and infection-specific precautions within hospitals is something we are absolutely committed to. In addition to Ministry recommendations, hospitals also go through an extensive accreditation process that requires them to show their use of prevention best practices, as we have done.
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