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Re: Alcohol-based surgical hand rub

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Michael Wishart
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Author:
Michael Wishart

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Hi Fran

Not sure if you are referring to use of alcohol hand gels/rubs in procedural areas for social handwashing, or use of waterless alcohol as a scrub agent.

We have been doing both here for a number of years. There are some surgical disciplines where the use of waterless alcohol based scrub agents has been embraced with a gusto. And some surgical disciplines where waterless alcohol based scrub agents are still frowned upon.

I would say 70% of all of our surgical scrubbing is now down with waterless alcohol based products. It has generally been well received. My only reservations are bout the professional societies not having good guidance on their use. ACORN has recently released some better guidance, but none of the surgical colleges have any specific guidance about how to use waterless agents, when you need to wash with soap and water, or anything. This to me makes to hard to enforce good practice across all disciplines. But then again, I have recently discovered that RACS doesn’t even have a procedure on how to do a water based surgical scrub!

Europeans have been using waterless based alcohol scrubbing for some time, and there has been no reported changes in SSI rates there.

So, I would give surgeons and theatre nurses the option of using these products, setting some simple ground rules for their use (like soap and water wash before the first waterless scrub of each list).

Good luck.

Cheers
Michael

Michael Wishart
Infection Control Coordinator

A 627 Rode Road, Chermside QLD 4032
P (07) 3326 3068 | F (07) 3607 2226 | E michael.wishart@svha.org.au | W http://www.hsnph.org.au
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P Please consider the environment before printing this email

Dear all,

How many of you out there are currently using an alcohol-based surgical hand rub in the Perioperative Suites? Some Visiting Medical Officers states that they’ve never heard of it and others can’t go without it.

Kind Regards

Franciska Ferreira
Infection Prevention & Control/Wound Management Consultant
Burnside War Memorial Hospital
120 Kensington Road, Toorak Gardens, SA 5056
t: 08 8202 7222 f: 08 8407 8573 e: fferreira@burnsidehospital.asn.au

[user] [bHand Hygiene day 16]

“Share the fun not the germs, clean your hands”

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