Ignaz Semmelweis Research Paper

Ignaz Semmelweis is known as the pioneer of antiseptic procedures being the first to introduce the role of hand hygiene in preventing person to person cross contamination. Semmelweis reduced mortality in the maternity ward to about 1% in 1861. Hospital acquired infections occur in 10% of US hospital patients and not only weighs on the mortality rate but also causes extra expenditure that can be quite substantial. While some nosocomial infections are harder to avoid, 10%-15% of these infections is said to be avoidable through proper hand hygiene. The question is no longer whether or not hand hygiene affects the rate of nosocomial infections but whether or not health care workers adequately adhere to hand hygiene practices, and if not, what has to be done to insure that they do.

Hand washing with simple soap and water can reliably prevent the colonization of subcutaneous microorganisms. There are protocols in every health care facility that encourages health care workers to practice hand hygiene before and after visiting each patient. The addition of hand rubs have made it even easier to disinfect the hands of health care professionals. Alcohol rubs are quick, cutting hand hygiene time down from 90-120 seconds to 10-20 seconds. Another acceptable hand hygiene practice is the use of gloves. Though these practices are so simple the adherence to hand hygiene policies is unacceptably