Availability of an alcohol solution can improve hand disinfection compliance in an intensive care unit

We investigated whether rubbing with an alcohol solution increases complian ce with hand disinfection in a medical intensive care unit (MICU). During a first period (P1), hand disinfection was achieved only through conventiona l washing, whereas during a second period (P2), hand disinfection could he achieved either through conventional washing or rubbing with an alcohol sol ution. There were 621 opportunities for hand disinfection during Pl and 905 opportunities during P2. General compliance during P1 was 42.4%, and reach ed 60.9% during P2 (p < 0.001). This improvement was observed among nurses (45.3% versus 66.9%, p < 0.001), senior physicians (37.2% versus 55.5%, p < 0.001), and residents (46.9% versus 59.1%, p = 0.03). Acceptability and to lerance were evaluated through the answers to an anonymous questionnaire di stributed to all 53 health care workers in the MICU. Rubbing with alcohol s olution was an easy procedure (100% of responses) and induced mild side eff ects in less than 100% of respondents. in a complementary study conducted 3 mo after the first one, compliance remained better than during P1 (51.3% v ersus 42.3%, p = 0.007). These findings suggest that rubbing with alcohol s olution increases compliance with hand disinfection, and that it could be p roposed as an alternative to conventional handwashing in the MICU.