Doctors Washing Hands More Diligent If There Surveillance Cameras

News Health Articles - Doctors Washing Hands More Diligent If There Surveillance Cameras. Although hand washing is the best way to prevent transmission of germs in hospitals, doctors in America are often lazy to do it. According to the study, adherence of physicians to wash their hands can be improved by surveillance cameras.

A study at North Shore University Hospital showed that only 10 percent of the doctors at the hospital properly washed their hands for 10 seconds before it involved physical contact with patients. This behavior is certainly a risk of spreading germs.



Not only transmit germs from the hands of doctors to patients, the germ of the patients also can be carried and then move on to other patients when the doctor around. It is not possible, the doctors who were too lazy to wash their hands can be infected with germs.

In subsequent experiments, the researchers set up surveillance cameras in every ward. The camera is mounted in places easily visible, with a red LED light flashes as a signal that the device is recording.

Unconsciously, the doctors and nurses who saw the surveillance cameras would be monitored so that it becomes more disciplined. From the observation for 16 weeks, the number of doctors who perform the hand washing procedure increased dramatically to 80 percent.

The low awareness of the doctors in the United States to wash their hands with alcohol has become a concern for their own health observers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted, one of the 20 patients infected with the new germ precisely when hospitalized.

"Wash your hands have become the backbone of infection control efforts over the last 150 years," said Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of infection control at North Shore University Hospital, as quoted from NYDailynews, Thursday (01/12/2011).