P123 The effect of having volunteers and face masks present at hospital entrances on the wearing of face masks and hand washing
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Stanier, Paul B; Lochab, Savneet K; Grice, John E
- Source
- BJS Open
- Subject
- Hand washing
medicine.medical_specialty
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
AcademicSubjects/MED00910
business.industry
Cost effectiveness
media_common.quotation_subject
General Medicine
Face masks
Hygiene
Poster Presentation
Physical therapy
Increased stress
Medicine
Infection control
General hospital
business
AcademicSubjects/MED00010
media_common
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2474-9842
Background The spread of COVID-19 has put inpatients lives at risk and increased stress on hospital. Simple, cost effective measures such as mask wearing and hand hygiene have been shown to reduce the spread of droplet borne viruses. Compliance with these measures is variable and when performed improperly, reduce efficacy. Objective In this paper we aim to determine whether the provision of masks at hospital entrances and the use of volunteers to ensure correct mask wearing and hand hygiene can improve compliance with infection prevention measures for COVID-19. Method Visitor and staff compliance with mask wearing and hand hygiene measures were observed with and without the presence of masks and volunteers at hospital entrances at a District General Hospital. Results A total of 519 people were observed entering the hospital. Mask wearing went from 71% to 99% (P = Discussion A statistically significant improvement in hand hygiene and correct mask wearing was seen with both the presence of volunteers at hospital entrances and with the provision of masks. This is a relatively small study with heterogenous cohorts of staff and visitors. However, these results appear to indicate that use of volunteers and provision of masks at entrances may improve the compliance with the measures that been shown to reduce the in-hospital transmission of COVID-19.