GOJO Supports World Health Organization's SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands Annual Global Campaign
The organization helps to raise awareness for important role hand hygiene plays in reducing the spread of infection in healthcare settings by supporting WHO, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Canadian Patient Safety Institute campaigns.
AKRON, Ohio, April 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The World Health Organization (WHO) annually marks May 5th 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 5th 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 percent2 and a 36 percent reduction in a hospital setting.3
About GOJO
GOJO Industries is the inventor of PURELL® Advanced Instant Hand Sanitizer and the leading global producer and marketer of skin health and hygiene solutions for away-from-home settings. The broad GOJO product portfolio includes hand cleaning, handwashing, hand sanitizing and skin care formulas under the GOJO®, PURELL® and PROVON® brand names. GOJO formulations use the latest advances in the science of skin care and sustainability. GOJO is known for state-of-the-art dispensing systems, engineered with attention to design, sustainability and functionality. GOJO programs promote healthy behaviors for hand hygiene, skin care and compliance in critical environments. GOJO is a privately held corporation headquartered in Akron, Ohio, with operations in the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Brazil.
1 Pittet D, Allegranzi, B, Storr, S, Bagheri N, Dziekan G, Leotsako A, Donaldson, L. Infection control as a major World Health Organization priority for developing countries. Journal of Hospital Infection. 2008, 68: 285-292.
2 Fendler EJ, Ali Y, Hammond BS. Lyons MK, Kelly MB, Vowell NA, The impact of alcohol hand sanitizer on infection control in an extended care facility. Am J Infect Control. 2002, 30:226-233.
3 Hilburn J. Texas Society of Infection Control Practitioners; Fendler EJ, Groziak PA, Hammond BS, The Use of Alcohol Hand Sanitizer as an Effective Infection Control Strategy in an Acute Care Facility. Am J Infect Control. 2002 Jun; 30(4): 226-33.
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SOURCE GOJO Industries
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