When to Wash Your Hands (Opportunities)

General Rule

Perform hand hygiene every time you enter or exiting a patient room.

Some useful terminology

Entering and leaving a patient room are hand hygiene opportunities.

You are expected to have full hand hygiene compliance at every hand hygiene opportunity.

Ok, but when exactly should I wash my hands?

Part of your hand hygiene should occur in the hand hygiene opportunity window. The hand hygiene opportunity window spans from 10 seconds before the opportunity to 10 seconds after the opportunity.

The 10 second parameter may vary from organization to organization. Check your hospital's rules for the most up-to-date numbers.

As long as part of your hand hygiene occurs within the hand hygiene opportunity window, it will count towards compliance.

Your wristband's hand hygiene timer begins when alcohol or soap is dispensed, and ends either when the compliance time set by your organization has been reached, or if you pause your hand hygiene motion for too long.

What if I forget?

5 seconds after the opportunity, your wristband will vibrate to alert you. That leaves you with 5 seconds to still perform hand hygiene and still count towards compliance!

Are there any other rules or exceptions that I should know about?

Hospitals can choose to implement additional rules for Sanibit Hand Hygiene.

For example, hospitals may choose to allow providers to enter a room without hand hygiene if they have exited another room in the last 30 seconds. Or, providers can leave a room and head to the dirty room without performing hand hygiene.

To see what additional rules or exceptions your hospital has implemented, see the rules in the Sanibit Web App: