SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands – Join GOJO in Supporting the WHO’s Annual Global Campaign

What are you doing on May 5th? We hope that you will be among the healthcare workers at hospitals and healthcare facilities around the globe to join the World Health Organization (WHO) in raising awareness for the important role hand hygiene plays in reducing the spread of infection in healthcare settings.

Last year, more than 18,000 hospitals worldwide joined together in support of the WHO’s efforts to increase awareness for the importance of hand hygiene in hospitals, and I hope your hospital or healthcare facility will join them this year.

The WHO SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands annual campaign was launched in 2009 to demonstrate that hand hygiene is one of the most important and first steps you can take to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and enhance patient safety. This campaign also serves as a platform to demonstrate the world’s commitment to hand hygiene in healthcare. The 2016 campaign focuses on hand hygiene and its role in providing safe surgical care and reducing the risk of surgical site and device-associated infections.

HAIs complicate between 5 and 10 percent of admissions in acute care hospitals in industrialized countries, and in developing countries, the risk is two to twenty times higher and the proportion of infected patients frequently exceeds 25 percent.1 This is why I encourage your hospital to participate.

If you are a healthcare worker or healthcare facility, GOJO, along with the WHO, asks for your involvement in this worthwhile campaign. As May 5th approaches, you can show your healthcare facility’s support and commitment to the WHO campaign in the following ways:

• Register with the SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign now if you haven’t already and ask other healthcare facilities to do the same
• Share your photos and commitment to clean hands in healthcare on social media by using #HandHygiene #SafeSurgicalHands in social media posts to support the campaign’s efforts
• Visit the WHO 5 May 2016 website regularly for ongoing updates and new downloads

Together, we can continue to raise awareness for hand hygiene in healthcare settings and take the necessary action to enhance patient safety and reduce incidences of HAIs. For more information about the SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign, visit the GOJO website for educational resources for May 5th.

1 Pittet D, Allegranzi, B, Storr, S, Bagheri N, Dziekan G, Leotsako A, Donaldson, L. Infection control as a major World Health Organization priority for developing countries. Journal of Hospital Infection. 2008, 68: 285-292.