Reducing Visitors- and Personnel-associated Infection Risk by Special Agitation Incl. Voice Prompts for Hand Disinfection on Perinatal Care Stations

The rate of infectious diseases (amnioninfection syndrome (AIS), fetal inflammatory response syndrome (FIRS), early-onset neonatal sepsis (EONS)) in perinatal care / neonatology is steadily rising in Germany. The hands of the staff and visitors are the most important transmission vehicle of pathogens. Hence hand hygiene is one of the most important measures for the prevention of hospital infections. The different measures of hand hygiene serve to protect against the spread of contamination of the skin with obligate or potentially pathogenic pathogens. Since the use of antibiotics is generally only possible to a limited extent (especially in pregnant women and neonates in perinatal care centers) the primary prophylactic measures are of great importance.

While the importance of hand disinfection in the staff has been undisputed, there is no data on the rate of hand disinfection for visitors of perinatal care centers. Visitor at these stations are common non-compliant persons (especially children!). On the other hand, pregnant women and young mothers and newborn babies are "exposed" to a large number of visitors compared to other stations.

The investigators examine whether special measures (such as voice prompts) have a positive effect on the rate of performed hand disinfections or consecutively on the infection rate.