The World Health Organization (WHO) offered a reminder this week that healthcare organizations and frontline health professionals should prioritize and revisit their hand hygiene practices. As a well-established and low-cost practice, proper hand hygiene safeguards patients and clinicians from infection, WHO says. Protective gloves reduce the risk of infection transmission, but they should not be used as a replacement for basic hand hygiene. Gloves can become contaminated and are frequently misused—such as being worn continuously between multiple patient interactions or during multiple procedures. The Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care are available on the WHO website.
What to do with those gloves: WHO notes that used gloves may be considered infectious waste. “Regulated waste, which is anything contaminated with blood or infectious agents, cannot go in the regular trash,” says Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc, President of Urgent Care Consultants and Senior Editor of JUCM. “It must be separated, put in biohazard containers—clearly labelled red bags or sharps boxes—and specially handled by a licensed medical disposal company.”