Report: 1 In 4 Michigan Hospitals Don't Follow Proper Hand-Hygiene Practices

NOVI (WWJ) - Have you ever asked your nurse or doctor if they have washed their hands? You might want to start.

According to a report released Thursday by hospital watchdog, The Leapfrog Group, nearly one-quarter of Michigan hospitals have not implemented all the safe practices and policies recommended for proper hand-hygiene.

The report also indicated that while hospitals overall showed improvement in 2014 for hand-hygiene, rural hospitals aren't performing as well as their urban counterparts.

"Rural or urban, affluent or safety net, there's no excuse for a hospital to fail on hand-hygiene," Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a statement. "It puts patients, clinicians, and all health care workers at risk when hand-washing is not a priority. Hospital-acquired infections kill about 10 percent of those afflicted, according to the Healthcare-Associated Infections Progress Report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

Out of the 102 Michigan hospitals included in the survey, 57 hospitals declined to report, 34 hospitals were fully compliant and 11 were not fully compliant, according to the Economic Alliance for Michigan (EAM).

"We applaud those hospitals willing to disclose various quality and safety measurements to the public," said EAM President Bret Jackson. "Hospital transparency leads to better care and lower costs."

Click here for a list of the 34 fully compliant Michigan hospitals (.pdf format)

Key findings from the report, which looked at hospitals nationwide, include:

• The percentage of hospitals meeting all 10 of Leapfrog's hand-hygiene practices increased from 69 percent in 2013 to 77 percent in 2014.

• Urban hospitals continue to outperform rural hospitals; about 20 percent more urban hospitals met Leapfrog's standard and showed greater year-over-year improvement in meeting the standard.

• There is significant geographic variation in adoption of hand-hygiene safe practices: in five states, more than 90 percent of reporting hospitals met all practices, while in six states, only 60 percent or less of reporting hospitals met all practices.

To view the complete hand-hygiene report, visit: www.leapfroggroup.org/HospitalSurveyReport.