The purpose of this How-to Guide is to help organizations reduce health-care-associated infections, including infections due to antibiotic-resistant organisms, by improving hand hygiene practices and use of gloves among health care workers.

The guide includes:

• A description of the case for improving hand hygiene and use of gloves among health care workers
• Recommended evidence-based interventions that will result in improvement
• How to begin improving hand hygiene compliance in your organization, including establishing a team, setting aims, testing changes, and measuring results
• Measurement support tools

This guide was prepared in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), and the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), and has been endorsed by APIC and SHEA. Valuable input also was provided by the World Health Organization's World Alliance for Patient Safety through the Global Patient Safety Challenge.

In 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee published a comprehensive Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings.

Recognizing a worldwide need to improve hand hygiene in health care facilities, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched its Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care (Advanced Draft) in October 2005.

Download the tool for detailed information.