The winners of the Asia Pacific Hand Hygiene Excellence Award and Innovation Award 2021 at the award ceremony in Singapore on July 28. — Photo courtesy of the hospital

HÀ NỘI — The 108 Central Military Hospital is among five hospitals to receive the Asia Pacific Hand Hygiene Excellence Award and Innovation Award 2021 for excellently performing hand hygiene at the Hand Hygiene Excellence Award Ceremony 2022 in Singapore on July 28.

The award is a result of the hospital's efforts over the past years. Also, it opens up opportunities for the hospital to strengthen local and international cooperation in exchanging infection control experiences and maintaining hand hygiene improvement.

The Asia Pacific Hand Hygiene Excellence and Innovation Award was initiated by the Asia Pacific Association for Infection Control in collaboration with the Hospital (BV) University of Geneva in 2010. The award honours medical facilities with the best hand hygiene programme in the region and encourages excellent hand hygiene models to improve patient safety.

Overcoming difficulties given by the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, the 108 hospital's Faculty of Infectious Diseases was one among more than 20 candidates reaching the final round.

The faculty has made great efforts in launching the hand hygiene movement, educating awareness about the importance of hand hygiene and strengthening monitoring and supervision. On June 2, after going through a strict evaluation process based on actual data and images from the hospital's five-year report, the 108 Central Military Hospital became one of the five winning medical facilities to receive the Asia Pacific Hand Hygiene Excellence Award 2021 alongside representatives from Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and India.

"Nosocomial infections are infections that patients get during examination and treatment at medical facilities," said Dr Nguyễn Thị Kim Phương, head of the hospital's Infection Control Department.

"Nosocomial infections have serious consequences for patients and medical facilities because they increase disease severity and mortality and prolong treatment days, thus increasing treatment costs.

"Especially in the context of antibiotic-resistant bacteria increasing in Việt Nam, the issue of preventing hospital-acquired infections becomes more and more important and urgent."

"Therefore, hand hygiene improvement is one of the simplest and most effective measures to prevent nosocomial infections. From that awareness in recent years, the 108 Central Military Hospital has continuously invested and enhanced training with many comprehensive measures to improve hand hygiene compliance in examination and treatment at the hospital to ensure the safety of patients."

Previously, four Vietnamese hospitals had also received the award, including the National Children's Hospital in 2019; the HCM City's University of Medical Centre in 2015; the Hùng Vương Hospital in 2013 and the Chợ Rẫy Hospital in 2012. — VNS