WHO launches global survey on infection prevention and control and hand hygiene
Ahead of their annual hand hygiene campaign on 5 May 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) have launched a global survey on the current level of progress of infection prevention and control (IPC) programmes and hand hygiene activities in healthcare facilities.
Participation in the survey, which is open for four months from 16 January to 16 May 2019, is voluntary and open to any acute healthcare facility globally.
According to WHO, the objectives of the survey are:
- to encourage and support local assessment of IPC and hand hygiene activities using WHO standardised and validated tools, in the context of the regular work of IPC teams/committees and the development of local improvement plans;
- to gather a situational analysis on the level of progress of current IPC and hand hygiene activities around the world and inform future efforts and resource use.
Following the completion of this survey at facility level, an automatically generated score is provided, indicating a facility’s overall IPC level and status of hand hygiene improvement.
This confidential score is intended to serve as a baseline assessment to help facilities develop IPC action plans and track progress over time.