Handy advice: CDC asks physicians to come clean with gels

Alcohol-based hand rubs are considered easier to use and more efficient at killing germs that often cause serious infections.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Nov. 18, 2002.

Washington -- Although somewhat surprising, and even a bit embarrassing, evidence shows that physicians, nurses and other health care workers don't always adequately wash their hands.

In 34 hand-washing studies, these professionals really cleaned up only 40% of the time, according to the hand hygiene resource center at the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven, Conn. The shortcoming is attributed to heavy workloads and hectic schedules. "Health care personnel are always on the go, which sometimes makes hand washing with soap and water difficult," said Steve Solomon, MD, acting director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's health care quality promotion division.

But their oversight is linked to the transmission of infection within the health care system. The CDC estimates that each year nearly 2 million patients in the United States get an infection in hospitals, and about 90,000 of die as a result.

In an effort to reverse these outcomes, the CDC issued new hand hygiene guidelines last month that will prove useful in the hospital, the clinic and even in physicians' offices.

Central to the directive is the regular use of alcohol-based hand rubs, and the message is clear: Even the busiest physician should be able to find time to use these products for a between-patient cleanup.

"These hand rubs should help promote hand hygiene because they are much more accessible than sinks, take less time to use and cause less skin irritation and dryness than many soaps," Dr. Solomon said. [...]