What it means to you: Despite ongoing efforts, convincing hospital staffers to make hand washing a priority continues to be a challenge, even though, as the CDC says, “Improved adherence to hand hygiene has been shown to terminate outbreaks in healthcare facilities, to reduce transmission of antimicrobial resistant organisms and reduce overall infection rates.” More and more hospitals are finding innovative ways to encourage hand hygiene.

The scoop: Several hospitals in the U.S. and overseas have adopted innovative programs to raise awareness of proper hand hygiene and motivate their staff to follow infection control protocol:

• ICU staff in an academic medical center in New York City played a card game called SPLAT!, in which players who failed to follow proper infection control procedures were labeled with stickers by their opponents. According to this study in the American Journal of Infection Control, hand hygiene compliance rose from 37 percent to 52 percent after playing the game.
• Staffers at Harrogate District Hospital in the U.K. recorded new lyrics to three popular songs to remind staff and visitors to wash their hands; the songs are played on the hospital radio system. Read the Harrogate Advertiser article.
• At Heartlands Hospital, the movie Ghostbusters inspired a team of Bug Busters to don haz-mat suits and proton packs to pass out hand sanitizer and remind staff to follow proper hand hygiene.

Learn more: Read about how the CDC is taking infection control to the masses with an e-card campaign, and how a partnership between a small Texas hospital and a school district has boosted public infection control practices.