Hygiene & Medizin
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Hygiene & Medizin 12/2011
Review
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Hygiene in Healthcare in Mongolia
Walter Popp*, Jörg Spors, Patrick Kreuz
HygMed 2011; 36 [12]: 488–492
Mongolia, a landlocked country in East and Central Asia, bordered by Russia and China, is 4.5 times as big as Germany with a population of only 2.7 million people. Thus, Mongolia is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. At the same time, Mongolia is very rich in mineral resources, which are now increasingly being extracted, and the influx of money is expected to bring about changes in the whole country. Currently, the public healthcare system, including hygiene precautions, is in a rather desolate state. The German-Mongolian “MeshHP Project” of the Ministries of Health aims to improve the hygiene situation in two pilot hospitals and in the Emergency Services in the capital. After one year, major successes have been achieved in the vaccination of healthcare workers against hepatitis B, the provision of alcohol-based disinfectants and the implementation of extensive training programmes in hygiene.
From the Field
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Increase of alcoholic hand disinfection usage due to new touchless dispensers
Simone Scheithauer*, Thomas Schwanz, Alexander Koch, Helga Häfner, Vedranka Krizanovic, Sebastian Lemmen
HygMed 2011; 36 [12]: 494–496
In order to evaluate a new touchless dispenser for hand disinfection, we conducted an observational study at a medical intensive care unit at the University Hospital Aachen. The disinfection usage increased on average by 53% from 34 (Min: 31; Max: 37) to 52 (Min: 42, Max: 65) hand rubs/patient-day with the highest increase of 95% for the dispensers next to the patients coming from 42 (Min: 40; Max: 46) to a maximum of 82 operations per dispenser per patient-day (+95%; mean: 68). This observation showed at least the potential for sustainability, since the mean values for operations/PD increased steadily during the 12 weeks study period with the touchless dispenser. In conclusion, the use of a touchless dispenser might contribute to increase the compliance with hygienic hand disinfection in the setting of an intensive care unit.
