Ten years of hand hygiene excellence: a summary of outcomes, and a comparison of indicators, from award-winning hospitals worldwide

Hand hygiene is a crucial measure for the prevention of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The Hand Hygiene Excellence Award (HHEA) is an international programme acknowledging healthcare facilities for their leadership in implementing hand hygiene improvement programmes, including the World Health Organisation’s Multimodal Improvement Strategy. This study aimed at summarising the results of the HHEA campaign between 2010 and 2021 and investigating the relationship between different hand hygiene parameters based on data from participating healthcare facilities. A retrospective analysis was performed on datasets from HHEA forms, including data on hand hygiene compliance, alcohol-based handrub (ABHR) consumption, and Hand Hygiene Self-Assessment Framework (HHSAF) scores. Descriptive statistics were reported for each variable. The correlation between variables was inspected through Kendall’s test, while possible non-linear relationships between hand hygiene compliance, ABHR consumption and HHSAF scores were sought through the Locally Estimated Scatterplot Smoothing or logistic regression models. A tree-structured partitioning model was developed to further confirm the obtained findings. Ninety-seven healthcare facilities from 28 countries in three world regions (Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America) were awarded the HHEA and thus included in the analysis. HHSAF scores indicated an advanced hand hygiene promotion level (median 445 points, IQR 395–480). System change (100 [95–100] points) and institutional safety climate (85 [70–95] points) showed the highest and lowest score, respectively. In most cases, hand hygiene compliance was above 70%, with heterogeneity between countries. ABHR consumption above 20 millilitres per patient-day (ml/PD) was widely reported, with overall increasing trends. HHSAF scores were positively correlated with hand hygiene compliance (τ = 0.211, p = 0.007). We observed a positive correlation between compliance rates and ABHR consumption (τ = 0.193, p < 0.001), although the average predicted consumption was stable around 55–60 ml/PD for compliance rates above 80–85%. Logistic regression and partitioning tree analyses revealed that higher HHSAF scores were more likely in the high-ABHR consumption group at cut-offs around 57–59 ml/PD. Ten years after its inception, the HHEA proves to be a valuable hand hygiene improvement programme in healthcare facilities worldwide. Consistent results were provided by the different hand hygiene indicators and the HHSAF score represents a valuable proxy measure of hand hygiene compliance.