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Petri Dish Pictures Convince Doctors to Wash Their Hands
One hospital in Los Angeles has found a creative way to get nearly perfect compliance with handwashing recommendations, the New York Times reports.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center tried dotting its walls with disinfectant dispensers, handing out bottles of Purell, and rewarding doctors with Starbucks lattes. Compliance rose only by 15%, not enough to meet JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) goals.
So last year, the hospital took cultures of the doctors' hands and photographed the colonies of bacteria they found. The pictures were incorporated into a screensaver, now featured on all of the hospital's computers.
Handwashing compliance shot up to nearly 100% -- and has remained there ever since.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: It is unclear whether these data have been presented elsewhere or submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.]
Link: New York Times story (One-time registration required)
Link: Cedars-Sinai screensaver (Free)
Link: Journal Watch General Medicine summary of a study of two interventions to improve handwashing compliance (Free)
Link: Journal Watch Infectious Diseases summary of a study of MRSA colonization of hospital computer keyboards (Free)
Published in Physician's First Watch September 25, 2006
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