Hand Hygiene Australia do not recommend routine hand hygiene compliance auditing with the 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene audit tool as an outcome measure in the non-acute, primary care or mental health setting. However, all facilities should be aware of their jurisdictional requirements when planning measurements of their hand hygiene program.

Other measures may be appropriate in assessing an organisation's hand hygiene program OR may be used in conjuction with hand hygiene compliance auditing when key issues are identified. A number of assessment tools are available below which can be used or modified as desired. These tools are for internal use only. HHA does not require this information.

Some dental services may decide – on the basis of an appropriate risk assessment – to undertake hand hygiene auditing by direct observation in addition to (or instead of) using program evaluation tools. Recognising that the auditing methodology developed for acute hospitals may not be applicable to the dental setting, Hand Hygiene Australia have provided guidance regarding the collection of representative hand hygiene compliance data by solo, group and hospital based dental services, including the establishment of dental/oral health specific health care worker and department codes.

All of the relevant Hand Hygiene Compliance auditing documents for dental services can be downloaded below.

Auditing with the 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene tool

Auditing of hand hygiene compliance to the 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene  is the established outcome measure for assessing the effectiveness of a hand hygiene program . Hand hygiene compliance is a valid and reliable measure within the acute care sector.

The 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene audit tool is generally suited to facilities that have the greatest staff/patient activity and interaction. This results in higher numbers of ‘Moments’ being audited in shorter time periods.

Auditing facilities where there is little staff/patient activity and interaction will result in a small number of moments being observed (i.e. non-acute, primary care, mental health settings) and resources required to undertake auditing may be better utilised measuring other aspects of a hand hygiene program (e.g product placement and availability surveys, education etc).

Hand Hygiene Compliance audits should only be undertaken by trained and validated auditors.

Hand Hygiene Compliance Audit Tools

All of the relevant Hand Hygiene Compliance auditing documents can be downloaded below.

Written instructions for learning how to use the Compliance Database can be downloaded below.