Public Health Agency

Hand Hygiene Audit

Hand hygiene is the single most important way to prevent the spread/transmission of infection.

Hand hygiene can be performed with warm water and liquid soap (for cleaning soiled hands), warm water and antiseptic solution (prior to invasive procedures or after contact with patients or infective materials) or by using a hand sanitiser (for hands that are socially clean i.e. not visibly soiled).

There are some situations where hand sanitisers are ineffective.  They should not be used when the hands are visibly dirty or soiled. In this case, running water and liquid soap should be used. Also, most hand sanitisers are not effective against viral infections (e.g. vomiting and diarrhoea caused by Norovirus). They are also not effective against Clostridium difficile (CDI) and are not to be relied on with infectious diarrhoea. In both cases running water and liquid soap should be used, see Hand Hygiene Guidance for further information.

The Hand Hygiene Compliance tool has been developed to measure hand hygiene compliance in healthcare workers.  The underlying principle is that in healthcare there are ‘hand hygiene opportunities’.  These are identifiable episodes when hand hygiene should take place e.g. before doing an aseptic procedure, after handling body fluids, before and after patient contact. This observational tool compares hand hygiene opportunities with observed hand hygiene. 

Hand Hygiene Compliance Tool