Letters
Infectious diseases
Volume 197 - Issue 4

Problematic linkage of publicly disclosed hand hygiene compliance and health care-associated Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia rates

Authors:  Elliott G Playford, David McDougall and Mary-Louise McLaws

Med J Aust 2012; 197 (4): 214. || doi: 10.5694/mja12.11077
Published online: 20 August 2012
In reply: We thank Grayson and Russo for their interest and comments. Clearly our intent was to stimulate much-needed debate about the presentation and interpretation of publicly disclosed infection control data. Given that no study has shown a reduction in the rate of methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB) through increased compliance with hand hygiene (HH), we again question why the MyHospitals interpretive comments for these data ...
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In reply: We thank Grayson and Russo for their interest and comments. Clearly our intent was to stimulate much-needed debate about the presentation and interpretation of publicly disclosed infection control data.

Given that no study has shown a reduction in the rate of methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB) through increased compliance with hand hygiene (HH), we again question why the MyHospitals interpretive comments for these data explicitly link the two: “Good hand hygiene is one of the most effective ways to minimise the risk of healthcare associated infections, such as Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia”.1 Further, MyHospitals fails to inform the public of other proven interventions to reduce health care-associated S. aureus bacteraemia (HCA-SAB) (including those mentioned in our letter2 and in Grayson and Russo’s reply).

Grayson and Russo agree with us that non-contemporaneous HH and HCA-SAB data — particularly where explicitly linked — are an additionally problematic feature of MyHospitals.

As disclosure of such data encourages the public to form judgements about hospitals’ performance, MyHospitals must adopt a sound evidence base in its presentation and guidance for interpretation of the data.

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