Hand hygiene
Monitoring tools
Evaluation of hand hygiene practices and related perception and knowledge at a health-care facility is one vital element of the strategy to improve hand hygiene. Continuous monitoring is very helpful in measuring the changes induced by implementation and to ensure that the interventions have been effective in improving hand hygiene practices, perception and knowledge among health-care workers.
On this page, you can directly access all the tools available for evaluation and feedback within the WHO Multimodal Hand Hygiene Improvement Strategy. Data Entry and Analysis Tools using Epi Info™ are also available for each tool.
Key publications
WHO Hand Hygiene Self-Assessment Framework
Health-care facilities can track their progress in hand hygiene resources, promotion, and activities, plan their actions and aim for improvement and sustainability through the use of the WHO Hand Hygiene Self-Assessment Framework.
The Framework is a tool with which to obtain a situation analysis of hand hygiene promotion and practices within an individual health-care facility, according to a set of indicators. It also acts as a diagnostic tool, identifying key issues requiring attention and improvement. Repeated use of the Framework will allow documentation of progress with time.
Hand Hygiene Technical Reference Manual
A manual to train health-care workers on practising, teaching and observing hand hygiene.
Template Action Plan
A guide to help you create an Action Plan specific for your health-care facility.
Some sample action plans are available, based on performance level as described within the HHSAF:
- Inadequate/Basic Results pdf, 493kb
- Intermediate Results pdf, 475kb
- Advanced/Leadership Results pdf, 489kb
Additional Hand Hygiene Evaluation Tools
- Observation Form (revised August 2009): A form to complete when monitoring hand hygiene.
- Ward Infrastructure Survey (revised August 2009): To collect data about structures and resources at ward level.
- Soap/Handrub Consumption Survey (revised August 2009): To capture data on usage of hand hygiene resources.
- Perception Survey for Health-Care Workers (revised August 2009)): To assess perceptions of health care-associated infection and hand hygiene.
- Perception Survey for Senior Managers (revised August 2009): To assess perceptions of health care-associated infection and hand hygiene.
- Hand Hygiene Knowledge Questionnaire for Health-Care Workers (revised August 2009): To assess knowledge on the essential aspects of hand hygiene.
- Protocol for Evaluation of Tolerability and Acceptability of Alcohol-based Handrub in Use or Planned to be Introduced: Method 1 (revised August 2009): To evaluate alcohol-based handrub usage and the skin condition following use.
- Protocol for Evaluation and Comparison of Tolerability and Acceptability of Different Alcohol-based Handrubs: Method 2 (revised August 2009): To compare the acceptability of different alcohol-based handrubs.
Data Entry Analysis Tools
The data entry analysis tools, instructions and data summary report framework are all inherently linked to the evaluation tools presented here as they provide helpful support in generating and presenting results electronically. These can therefore be used all together or the evaluation tools can be used alone, with data analysis and presentation managed at the local level.
NB: Those using old (pre-5 May 2009) versions of the evaluation tools will not now be able to use these in conjunction with the revised data analysis tools. We encourage you to use the most up-to-date versions of our tools.
| Title | Type | Size | |
| data_entry_analysis_tool_infrastructure | zip | 36 KB | Download |
| data_entry_analysis_tool_tolerability_handrubs | zip | 145 KB | Download |
| data_entry_analysis_tool_observation | zip | 47 KB | Download |
| data_entry_analysis_tool_manager_perception | zip | 26 KB | Download |
| data_entry_analysis_tool_hcw_knowledge | zip | 39 KB | Download |
| data_entry_analysis_tool_consumption_survey | zip | 24 KB | Download |
| data_entry_analysis_tool_hcw_perception | zip | 75 KB | Download |
| PS_WHO_tolerability_handrubs_2010 | zip | 141 KB | Download |
- Instructions for data-entry and data-analysis using Epi Info™ pdf, 1,41Mb
- Data Summary Report Framework (revised October 2009) ppt, 1.01Mb: Examples of how best to present the results of the surveys performed during the evaluation phases of the implementation of the hand hygiene improvement strategy.