This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Viral Infections  • Infectious Diseases, Other  • Occupational and Environmental Medicine  • World Health  • Public Health, Other  • H1N1 Influenza  • Infectious Diseases  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Mike Mitka

JAMA. 2009;302(17):1850-1851.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

As the 2009 influenza A(H1N1) virus expands its reach, health officials continue to stress the importance of hand washing as the first line of defense in prevention. Particularly in health care settings, hand antisepsis has long been recognized as a key factor in minimizing the spread of pathogenic microorganisms and limiting health care–associated infections. Yet getting health care workers, including physicians and nurses, to wash their hands remains a problem. In response, new patient safety programs from the Joint Commission and the World Health Organization (WHO) are placing their initial focus on improving compliance with hand hygiene standards.

On September 10, the Joint Commission launched its Center for Transforming Healthcare, which seeks to identify effective quality and safety practices that can be implemented at a broad range of institutions, said Mark R. Chassin, MD, MPH, Joint Commission president. Its first target: hand cleanliness. "We conducted a little poll . . . [Full Text of this Article]

A JOINT INITIATIVE



CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?