July 24, 2003

STOP: A new mission for MGH hand hygiene program

For several years, staff members from the hospitalwide MGH hand hygiene task force have been working diligently to reduce and prevent the incidence of nosocomial — or hospital-acquired — infections by promoting compliance with good hand hygiene. One of the task force's most significant contributions has been instituting the use of Cal Stat throughout the hospital. Cal Stat is an alcohol-based antiseptic hand gel that health care workers use to disinfect their hands before and after patient contact. Research has shown that alcohol-based products are more effective in reducing bacteria on the skin and can reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections.

Now the task force has developed a more comprehensive mission: to prevent the transmission of pathogens such as a virus, fungus or bacterium, which cause infections. To reflect the expanded scope of its mission, the task force has changed its name to the STOP (stop transmission of pathogens) task force.

Members of STOP have broadened their activities to include raising awareness among clinicians about how pathogens are transmitted, paying particular attention to proper cleaning of equipment and the patient care environment.

They also are developing strategies to increase compliance with proper practice of "precaution" techniques, which require clinicians to follow certain procedures to prevent the transmission of pathogens. Task force members will monitor practice of precaution techniques and provide feedback to staff about compliance and progress. Improving general communication about precaution techniques will continue to be a goal, particularly focusing on increasing awareness about the red "P" icon used in the Clinical Applications Suite (CAS) patient information system that denotes a precaution status.

The STOP task force also will work to develop educational initiatives to expand awareness about hand hygiene techniques as well as general infection control practices for clinical and nonclinical employees.

"Our goal is to improve the quality of our patient care by preventing hospital-acquired infections from starting in the first place," says David Hooper, MD, chief of the MGH Infection Control Unit and chair of the STOP task force. "Increasing the range of responsibilities for the task force will help improve our effectiveness and will provide even more resources for clinicians to help prevent these infections."

For more information about the STOP task force, call the Infection Control Unit at (617) 726-2036.