Ontario hospitals are posting their hand hygiene compliance rates as percentages for time periods identified by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, using the following formula:

# of times hand hygiene performed
# of observed hand hygiene indications

These percentages also reflect:

(i) hand hygiene before initial patient/patient environment contact by combined health care provider type (e.g., nurses, allied health professionals, physicians, etc.)

(ii) hand hygiene after patient/patient environment contact by combined health care provider type (e.g., nurses, allied health professionals, physicians, etc.)

Method:
Hospitals are to collect at least 200 observations for every 100 in patient beds. Since RVH has 55 inpatient beds we needed to collect a minimum of 110 observations.

To ensure statistically valid data for smaller hospitals, or hospitals with fewer in-patient beds a minimum of 50 observed opportunities for hand hygiene will need to be collected.

The goal of public reporting hand hygiene compliance is to achieve an overall assessment of whether compliance rates are improving. It is normal for rates to vary from hospital to hospital.

Hand Hygiene Patient and Family Information