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Hand Hygiene Compliance

Research shows that hand hygiene is the single most effective way to reduce the risk of health-care associated infections.  Hand hygiene is a key issue for our hospital, and we continually work to improve compliance.

Patients can help improve their own safety

Hand hygiene involves everyone in the hospital, including patients. Hand cleaning is one of the best ways you and your health-care team can prevent the spread of many infections. Patients and their visitors should also practice good hand hygiene before and after entering patient rooms.

More patient-specific information is available at www.ontario.ca/patientsafety and www.oha.com/quality-safety-and-patient-and-family-centred-care and www.oha.com/Documents/English%20-%20Pamphlet.pdf.

Measuring compliance rates

The Ottawa Hospital regularly audits health care professionals to ensure they are performing  hand hygiene the right way at the right time.  The results of these audits are continually reported internally to individual patient units, and to the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care yearly.

Hand hygiene compliance rates at The Ottawa Hospital

Hand Hygiene: Number of times Hand Hygiene performed Before initial Patient / Pt Environment Contact

Hand Hygiene: Number of times Hand Hygiene performed Before initial Patient / Pt Environment Contact
Civic Campus General Campus The Rehabilitation Centre
Monthly HH Performed # Observations % Compliance with HH HH Performed # Observations % Compliance with HH HH Performed # Observations % Compliance with HH
Fiscal Year 2017-18 3083 3123 98.7% 3816 3923 97.3% 115 115 100.0%
Fiscal Year 2018-19 1478 1504 98.3% 1507 1541 97.8% 114 144 100.0%
Fiscal Year 2019-20 1129 1179 95.8% 1179 1223 96.4% 58 58 100.0%
Fiscal Year 2020-21 1499 1653 90.7% 1588 1766 89.9% 20 25 80.0%
Fiscal Year 2021-22 3598 4849 74.2% 3187 4470 71.3% 386 483 79.9%
Fiscal Year 2022-23 3018 3518 85.8% 2099 2526 83.1% 147 191 77.0%
Fiscal Year 2023-24 2668 3258 81.9% 2994 3477 86.1% 267 308 86.7%
Fiscal Year 2024-25 3142 4235 74.2% 1981 2846 69.6% 5470/td>

7472 73.2%

Hand Hygiene: Number of times Hand Hygiene performed After Patient / Pt Environment Contact

Hand Hygiene: Number of times Hand Hygiene performed After Patient / Pt Environment Contact
Civic Campus General Campus The Rehabilitation Centre
Monthly HH Performed # Observations % Compliance with HH HH Performed # Observations % Compliance with HH HH Performed # Observations % Compliance with HH
Fiscal Year 2017-18 2871 2933 97.9% 3949 4108 96.1% 121 121 100.0%
Fiscal Year 2018-19 1528 1560 97.9% 1603 1651 97.1% 138 138 100.0%
Fiscal Year 2019-20 1233 1288 95.7% 1333 1363 97.8% 66 66 100.0%
Fiscal Year 2020-21 1402 1481 94.7% 1362 1444 94.3% 18 20 90.0%
Fiscal Year 2021-22 4408 5125 86.0% 5604 6464 86.7% 557 664 83.9%
Fiscal Year 2022-23 3445 3724 92.5% 3038 3350 90.7% 207 234 88.5%
Fiscal Year 2023-24 3632 4004 90.7% 3911 4317 90.6% 264 300 88.0%
Fiscal Year 2024-25 4123 4902 84.1% 3698 4554 81.2% 227/td>

279 81.4%

Hand Hygiene: Number of times Hand Hygiene performed Before Aseptic Procedure

Hand Hygiene: Number of times Hand Hygiene performed Before Aseptic Procedure
Civic Campus General Campus The Rehabilitation Centre
Monthly HH Performed # Observations % Compliance with HH HH Performed # Observations % Compliance with HH HH Performed # Observations % Compliance with HH
Fiscal Year 2021-22 9 20 45.0% 14 21 66.7% 0 0 –
Fiscal Year 2022-23 884 1089 81.2% 19 39 48.7% 0 0 –
Fiscal Year 2023-24 34 75 45.3% 32 64 50.0% 0 0 n/a
Fiscal Year 2024-25 3 16 18.8% 4 20 20.0% 0 0 n/a

Hand Hygiene: Number of times Hand Hygiene performed After Body Fluid Exposure Risk

Hand Hygiene: Number of times Hand Hygiene performed After Body Fluid Exposure Risk
Civic Campus General Campus The Rehabilitation Centre
Monthly HH Performed # Observations % Compliance with HH HH Performed # Observations % Compliance with HH HH Performed # Observations % Compliance with HH
Fiscal Year 2021-22 10 13 76.9% 25 36 69.4% 0 0 –
Fiscal Year 2022-23 781 1067 73.2% 45 58 77.6% 3 3 100%
Fiscal Year 2023-24 0 1 0.0% 5 5 100.0% 0 0 n/a
Fiscal Year 2024-25 0 7 0.0% 5 11 45.5% 0 0 n/a

Last updated on: April 24th, 2025