Hand Hygiene is a Team Sport in Healthcare: Improving Compliance with the Five Ps

Ronnie Phillips, Ph.D., Senior Director of Innovation, GP PRO
 

With all eyes on the world’s biggest soccer stage this summer, countless displays of breathtaking coordination and world-class play have thrilled billions of people. But most coaches would say championship-level collaboration is forged in the moments when no one is watching. This hidden dynamic is precisely what drives hand hygiene compliance in world-class healthcare facilities.

At the annual conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) in June, I joined leading infection preventionist (IP) Missy Travis, MSN, RN, CIC, FAPIC, to address a universal truth backed by long-standing data from both APIC and the CDC: clinical hand hygiene compliance, on average, has historically flatlined at less than 50%ⁱ. Despite universal agreement that hand hygiene is the cornerstone of infection prevention, compliance remains stubbornly stagnant.

According to Missy, most IP conversations about hand hygiene compliance start with behavior management, focusing on education, audits, and mandates. This thinking is shifting toward what can actually be controlled: the systems and infrastructure put in place to support clinical staff.

To evaluate these top structural obstacles, Ryan Kantor, Director, Insights & Knowledge at GP PRO, administered an online survey to APIC attendees. Thanks to the 124 IPs who participated, the results revealed that compliance failures are heavily impacted by system reliability:

• 89% say empty or non-working soap/sanitizer dispensers are barriersⁱⁱ
• 81% cite empty or non-working towel dispensers as a hurdle, while 70% mention poor dispenser placementⁱⁱⁱ
• 97% agree that dispenser reliability is key to hand hygiene compliance^iv

This data reinforces what we already know—healthcare workers must have reliable tools that are readily available to succeed. If a dispenser is empty at a critical moment, a nurse or doctor simply does not have time to find another before helping a patient. Unreliable systems create a cascade of problems because healthcare workers are in constant contact with patients, surfaces, and shared equipment. Moreover, staff notices when leadership prioritizes compliance but neglects to put systems in place to properly support them where and when they need it most.

Understanding the ‘Five Ps’ of Hand Hygiene

As someone who translates user behaviors into learnings that drive meaningful innovations at GP PRO, I was excited to unpack the “Five Ps” of hand hygiene with Missy. This fundamental framework forms the foundation of effective systems and bridges the gap between IPs and Environmental Services (EVS) to make compliance seamless:

1. Placement: Position dispensers exactly where natural clinical workflows occur, in easily visible and accessible areas.
2. Product: Ensure high-quality skincare formulations that prevent skin breakdown—a major, unspoken barrier to frequent hand hygiene.
3. Performance: Rely on well-engineered, intuitive dispenser functionality that works flawlessly every time, eliminating frustration.
4. Proactive Monitoring: Utilize smart monitoring with real-time alerts to catch empty or malfunctioning dispensers before a healthcare worker encounters them.
5. Prompt Response: Empower EVS teams to quickly fix problems, instilling greater trust and confidence in the system.

What stands out most is how this five-part, collaborative workflow connects healthcare workers, IPs and EVS teams while eliminating friction and finger-pointing. By leveraging data-driven insights like real-time alerts and cumulative analytics, facilities can boost dispenser uptime, optimize placement strategies, and ultimately reduce cross-contamination risks and hospital-associated infections across the full continuum of care.

The Power of Partnership

True hand hygiene compliance cannot be solved in a silo. As a proud APIC Visionary Partner celebrating 50 years of service to the healthcare industry, GP PRO is fully committed to developing and delivering holistic, hand hygiene solutions from wash-to-dry. Working directly with esteemed industry experts, like Missy, as well as listening to and learning from customers and APIC attendees, we can offer endless opportunities to transform operations. GP PRO’s overarching goal is to help customers embrace intuitive, intelligent solutions and proactive best practices that elevate compliance, performance, and skin health.

Missy’s biggest takeaway from our APIC conversation, really resonated with me and bears repeating: “Focus on what you can control—as you can influence products, placement, monitoring, and collaboration.” This is a winning strategy for all hand hygiene stakeholders as well as a call-to-action for the industry to facilitate continual communication and collaboration to ensure the right tools, technologies, and teams are in place to produce successful outcomes.