Ohio Ag Connection - GOJO Supports SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands Annual Global Campaign

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GOJO Supports SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands Annual Global Campaign
Ohio Ag Connection - 05/03/2016

The World Health Organization (WHO) annually marks May 5 with its SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign. GOJO Industries, a leader in hand hygiene and skin health and the inventors of PURELL Hand Sanitizer, is once again proud to support this campaign in two ways. The first as part of Private Organizations for Patient Safety (POPS), an initiative facilitated by WHO that collaboratively works towards reducing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) by improving hand hygiene education and awareness. The second is by raising awareness for and enlisting hospitals across the globe to register as part of the WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands initiative.

The WHO SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands annual campaign was launched in 2009 to demonstrate that hand hygiene is one of the most important and first steps healthcare workers can take to reduce HAIs and enhance patient safety. This campaign also serves as a platform to demonstrate the world's commitment to hand hygiene in healthcare.

"The 2016 campaign focuses on safe surgical care and aims to improve hand hygiene practices hospital-wide, and in particular in all surgical services through the patient journey - from patient admission to operating room, surgical wards and including outpatient surgery," said Professor Didier Pittet, M.D., director, infection control programme, University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine and Lead Advisor, WHO Challenge Clean Care is Safer Care Programme. "We hope that hospitals and healthcare facilities from around the world will join together on May 5 to highlight the important role hand hygiene plays in keeping healthcare workers and patients safe."

"This year WHO is focused on the important role hand hygiene plays in surgical care,'" said Jim Arbogast, Ph.D., GOJO vice president of hygiene sciences and public health advancements. "At GOJO, the safety of all healthcare workers and patients is top of mind. Because of this, we focus on bringing hand hygiene solutions to the surgical care market that help improve hand hygiene effectiveness, compliance and ultimately help reduce infections."

To raise awareness for effective hand hygiene and the initiative facilitated by WHO, GOJO is encouraging hospitals to register and join more than 18,000 hospitals worldwide in supporting the WHO's efforts, as well as providing more than 30,000 units of PURELL Advanced Hand Sanitizer and hand hygiene materials to hospitals across the globe.

This year GOJO has also partnered with the CDC Foundation to provide unbranded hand hygiene educational materials and tools for patients, healthcare providers and caregivers in U.S. healthcare facilities, such as hospitals, nursing homes and other ambulatory care locations through the Clean Hands Count Campaign.

In addition, GOJO has sponsored the Canadian Patient Safety Institute's (CPSI) STOP! Clean Your Hands Day Program, which coincides with the WHO global initiative. Canadian Healthcare facilities can get more information at www.handhygiene.ca and view educational tools and resources to assist in promoting optimal hand hygiene practices.

PURELL Advanced Hand Sanitizer has been a critical solution to many hospitals across the world in helping to prevent the spread of infections in healthcare settings. Studies have consistently demonstrated the importance of using PURELL Instant Hand Sanitizer in healthcare settings where infection rates in long-term care facilities were reduced by 30 percent and a 36 percent reduction in a hospital setting.

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