Irish policy-Makers’ perceptions of barriers and facilitators to hand hygiene compliance

Aim To examine the barriers to, and facilitators of, hand hygiene (HH) practices as perceived by national and hospital-level HH policy-makers in Ireland; and identify the extent to which the issues identified are addressed in national HH guidelines. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 national-and hospital-level Irish HH policy-makers. Four national Irish HH policy documents were reviewed. Results The policy-makers identified a range of barriers and facilitators of HH compliance. These were found to fit into six themes, with a number of suggestions for how to improve HH compliance. All of the policy documents referenced the World Health Organization’s five moments, but lacked guidance on how to improve HH compliance beyond recommending audit and feedback. Conclusion Policy-makers identified potential areas for targeting in future interventions. The varied extent to which the issues identified in the interviews were addressed in the guidelines, policies, and standards suggest that revision of such documents is required.