#2 Daily Dose of Patient Safety: Give your Patients a Hand by Washing Your Hands Regularly

#2 Daily Dose of Patient Safety: Give your Patients a Hand by Washing Your Hands Regularly

MHS Patient Safety Professionals: As a health care professional you already know that hand hygiene is the single most important strategy for preventing infections. Familiarize yourself with the “5 Moments of Hand Hygiene” as recommended by the World Health Organization. Perform hand hygiene: Before patient contact Before aseptic task After body fluid explore risk After patient contact After contact with patient surroundings Remember to speak up and politely coach your colleagues to perform hand hygiene if you observe missed opportunities. If you are gently reminded, remember to say ‘thank you’ and perform hand hygiene immediately. Cleansing our hands and communicating these actions provides an opportunity to engage our patients so they are aware hand hygiene was performed and is a critical component of their treatment. Learn more at: http://www.who.int/gpsc/tools/Five_moments/en/  Patient Safety Awareness Week News: Want to improve your patient safety skillset? Test your patient safety IQ with the Patient Safety Awareness Week Daily Patient Safety Quiz question posted at 11 a.m. EDT atfacebook.com/dodpatientsafety Check out the DoD PSP calendar of events at https://go.usa.gov/xXc2j to find information on webinars and other patient safety activities happening this week. Do you work in an MTF? Tell us what you’re doing for Patient Safety Awareness Week viaDHA.patientsafety@mail.mil. If you have questions, please e-mail us at DHA.patientsafety@mail.mil. Thank you, DoD Patient Safety Program Team