WHO SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands

WHO SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands

SL: CYH Newsletter
8 March 2012


Dear Colleagues,

In this edition:

Five steps to 5 May - What's YOUR Plan? - Only 3 steps left!
Tools to support you in 5 May 2012 activities
Health-care facility registrations for SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands - Where are we now? What can we achieve together in 2012?

Five steps to 5 May - What's YOUR Plan? - Only 3 steps left!

Here is what WHO is asking you to do in support of the global annual campaign SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands, aimed at maintaining a global profile on the importance of hand hygiene in health care to reduce health care-associated infections and enhance patient safety worldwide. There are five steps in the 2012 call to action heading to 5 May. This month WHO highlights what you could be doing in March.

• January – What's YOUR Plan?: have you used the WHO Hand Hygiene Self-Assessment Framework (HHSAF) to know how your facility is progressing with hand hygiene improvement? If not, use it now as the focus for 5 May is on YOUR Plans, based on your HHSAF results! http://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/hhsa_framework/en/index.html

• February – What's YOUR Plan?: Have you carefully analysed your own WHO HHSAF results? Based on these results, it's now time to plan your actions to improve and sustain hand hygiene! Use the WHO Targeted Action Plan Templates that will be provided shortly to guide YOUR plans!

• March – What's YOUR Plan?: Have you made YOUR facility's plan? Are you discussing and engaging with other key players for success and who can help with your action plan to ensure success? Identify at least one or more actions that can be accomplished by or on 5 May 2012 to show YOUR facility's commitment to improving hand hygiene!

• April – What's YOUR Plan?: Is your targeted plan ready for use now, is everyone engaged in supporting its success? If yes, place your Action Plan on your web pages and share the web site address with savelives@who.int so it can feature on WHO web pages. Are you ready for YOUR 5 May activities/celebrations focused on one or more selected actions from your plan?


• May – What's YOUR Plan?: Celebrate on 5 or 7 May! Involve staff and the facility's leadership in your selected action(s) and/or report their results! If you haven't yet, issue YOUR targeted Action Plan, and progress your facility's hand hygiene improvement now, sharing your web page link featuring your plans with WHO to be featured on their pages.

Tools to support you in 5 May 2012 activities

WHO Template Action Plans are now available on our web pages in English and French; the Spanish version will come shortly. These template action plans strongly link to the WHO Hand Hygiene Self-Assessment Framework. Reviewing your results and mapping these to actions is critical. The template plans facilitate the development of your action plan, by outlining key steps to be taken whether your Framework results are Inadequate/Basic, Intermediate or Advanced/Leadership. The important, simple, yet targeted points will help you to execute plans aimed at further hand hygiene improvements in your health-care facility.

Remember a forthcoming video message from Professor Didier Pittet will be available on our web pages for your country or facility to use in their 5 May activities.

The Spanish version of some additional WHO hand hygiene tools also is now available on the WHO web pages.

New WHO guidance document on hand hygiene in outpatient care

WHO Clean Care is Safer Care is pleased to announce the upcoming launch of a guidance document on the principles and practice of hand hygiene in outpatient care settings. Based on the WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care, the document aims to address specific challenges related to the improvement of hand hygiene and the application of the WHO "My five moments for hand hygiene" approach in such settings. Available evidence on the risk of pathogen transmission by hands is presented in the document, as well as practical examples of care situations, in order to facilitate understanding and optimal compliance with hand hygiene requirements.

WHO invites you to start considering the use of the document on or around 5 May in collaboration with your colleagues involved in outpatient care. The document is planned to be issued by the end of the month and the electronic version will be available on our web site.

Health-care facility registrations for SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands - Where are we now? What can we achieve together in 2012?

WHO has so far secured 14 858 health-care facility registrations in 149 countries.
There are, however, still a number of countries without any registered health-care facilities!
Help WHO get over 155 countries with at least one health-care facility registered by 5 May 2012! Follow the WHO web pages to see how we are progressing with this target.
Have you managed to get one new health-care facility to register for SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands in the last month? Can you get at least one more during March?
Share your plans and activities - sharing is part of global learning. To promote 5 May 2012, we will feature your web pages focused on SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands including your action plans, so please share them with us now! savelives@who.int

Free 2012 WHO teleclass series on infection control

Through the Webber Training system (www.webbertraining.com) you can listen to the recording of the presentation on injection safety made on 7 March 2012. You can also register to attend the next one entitled "Implementing change: The technical & socio-adaptive aspects of preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infection" by S. Saint, Ann Arbour, USA, on 17 April at 12:30 pm (NYT).

Closure of the who framework.survey mailbox

As of mid-March 2012, the email address whoframework.survey@who.int will no longer be active. This follows the closure of the global survey at the end of 2011.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment and support to WHO for SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands; it is nothing without you! Cascade this newsletter or use messages within it to communicate with your colleagues and contacts.


The WHO Patient Safety: Clean Care is Safer Care team

First indigenous midwife

Margaret is originally from Broome, she is the mother of four young children and she has graduated from Curtin University after completing her Bachelor of Science (Midwifery). Congratulations Margaret Martin what an enormous achievement.
Margaret was a committed student from the moment I met her when she commenced her course. I had no doubt then that she would complete her midwifery and I have no doubt now that Margaret will achieve great things for both Aboriginal women and midwifery.

Margaret sees her role of a midwife as important, her aim is to consolidate and gain experience as a midwife and focus on pregnancy care for Aboriginal women and help to make their birthing experiences as positive as possible. Margaret’s ultimate aim is to go back up north and help set up a clinic for Aboriginal women, which could help reduce infant mortality rates and improve the health of mothers, babies and children.
Margaret’s mother Carol Martin (Labor MP) was the first indigenous woman to be voted into an Australian parliament; it seems that Margaret is following in her mother’s footsteps in leading the way forward. Margaret’s philosophy is “anything is possible if you set your mind to it”...... Good luck Margaret... aim high, dreams do come true....

Pauline Costins