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Table 1 Location and number of dispensers depending on hospital size

From: Handrub dispensers per acute care hospital bed: a study to develop a new minimum standard

 

All hospitals (n = 110)

Hospitals with < 200 beds (n = 70)

Hospitals with 200–500 beds (n = 30)

Hospitals with > 500 beds (n = 10)

Location of ABHR* dispensers

 Entrance (%)

92 (84)

58 (83)

26 (87)

7 (70)

 Near the sink (%)

81 (74)

47 (67)

25 (83)

9 (90)

 Within 1 m-radius from the bed (%)

31 (28)

19 (27)

5 (17)

7 (70)

 At bedside (%)

26 (24)

19 (27)

5 (17)

2 (20)

 Elsewhere (for example trolleys) (%)

14 (13)

10 (14)

2 (7)

2 (20)

Number of mounted dispensers

 Per room, mean (SD, range)

1.8 (0.8; 1–4)

2 (0.8; 1–4)

1 (0.8; 1–4)

2 (1; 1–3)

 Per bed, mean (SD, range)

2.4 (3; 0.4–22.2)

2.5 (3.6; 0.8–22.2)

2.1 (1; 0.7–5.3)

2.1 (1.5; 0.4–4.9)

 Pocket dispenser use > 60%

28 (26)

14 (20)

10 (33)

4 (40)

 HH* compliance monitoring

68 (62)

37 (53)

25 (83)

5 (50)

  1. *ABHR Alcohol-based handrub, HH hand hygiene
  2. Wall-mounted dispensers are the dominant type of ABHR dispensers in 75% (n = 82) of hospitals compared to 25% where pocket-sized dispensers are mainly offered. However, 97% (n = 107) hospitals provide pocket-sized dispensers as an additional tool to wall-mounted dispensers to facilitate access to handrub. Overall, the reported mean number was two ABHR-Ds per patient room (mean: 1.83, range 1–4). Out of 110 hospitals, 91 (83%) provided detailed data on the total number of beds and dispensers within the building, not only in patient rooms, resulting in a higher mean of 2.4 (range 0.4–22.1) ABHR-Ds per hospital bed. Therefore, the number of ABHR-Ds per bed is higher than the number of ABHR-Ds per room