Isolation Precautions Compliance Rates Among Healthcare Workers in a Tertiary Care Educational Hemato-Oncology Hospital

Introduction:The use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by healthcare workers (HCWs) is a key component of infection prevention in patients requiring isolation precautions (IP) and represents one of the essential practices.The objective of this study was to assess the compliance with IP in a 164-bed tertiary-care educational hospital. Materials and Methods:The study was conducted in our center between April 2023 and July 2024.We conducted unblinded individualized observations to determine whether HCWs complied with the use of gowns and gloves when providing direct care to patients in IP.The fundamental principle of IP is to wear gloves and gowns when in contact with the patient and surrounding surfaces.In this study, we considered it non-compliance with IP when HCWs did not have a gown and/or gloves while touching the patients and/ or surroundings.We excluded observations in two cases: when HCWs did not touch the patient or the patient's environment during the observation; and when emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation or other emergency interventions were performed.We performed statistical analysis using the Chi-square test and multivariate Chi-square test, and a p-value <0.05 was considered significant.Results: During the study period, a total of 633 observations were conducted, resulting in an overall compliance rate of 86.4% (547/633).Nurses demonstrated the highest compliance rate at 92%.On the other hand, doctors had the lowest compliance rate at 76% (p< 0.001).The baseline compliance rate at the beginning of the study was approximately 42%.From April 2023 to July 2024, verbal warnings were given to staff who were not compliant (n= 23), in September 2023 (n= 16), and in May 2024 (n= 10), official emails were sent to address the issue with non-compliant staff.Compliance subsequently increased to 100% (30/30) in november and then fluctuated between 80% and 100% until July 2024.When comparing April 2023 with July 2024, overall PPE compliance was significantly higher in July 2024 (p< 0.001), with significant increases among doctors (p= 0.001) and nurses (p< 0.001), but not among auxiliary staff (p= 0.379).