Impact on implementation of multimodal of World Health Organization strategies to improve hand hygiene in an Intensive Care Unit

Introduction: Hand hygiene is the main measure to decrease infections related to healthcare and the Intensive Care Unit has a high prevalence. In Chile there aren't reports about the impact of the World Health Organization multimodal hand hygiene improvement strategy. Aim: To assess the implementation impact of this strategy at the ICU. Methodology: Longitudinal study with pre- and post- intervention evaluation during the years 2018-2021 at ICU. The implementation was assessed against hand hygiene compliance guidelines, soap consumption and alcohol-based products. The impact was evaluated with the rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), catheter related bloodstream infection (CRBSI) and catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) and the annual dermatitis incidence. Results: The guidelines compliance increased from 91% to 96% (p < 0.05). The total product consumption increased from 0.17 to 0.31 Liters/day/bed. The use of alcohol-based products increased by 10%. HAI rates pre- and post-intervention were for VAP 10.3 and 8.4, CRBSI 0.8 and 1.5 and CAUTI 4.2 and 5.3. The annual dermatitis incidence decreased by 30.8% (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The strategy implementation benefited the decrease of VAP and the dermatitis prevention in ICU.