Hand hygiene is a fundamental part of patient care to prevent the spread of infections and contamination of the healthcare environment.
Contact the NHHI Help Desk for support with the NHHI Learning Management System (LMS) and the Hand Hygiene Compliance Application (HHCApp).
This page includes resources for implementation of the Preventing and Controlling Infections Standard of the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards and National Safety and Quality Primary and Community Healthcare Standards (Primary and Community Healthcare Standards).
Antimicrobial Stewardship in Australian Health Care (the AMS Book), initially published in 2018, continues to be updated and enhanced with additional evidence, information, and topic areas to inform antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) strategies, interventions, and implementation across a range of healthcare settings.
The Commission has developed new training pathways for Hand Hygiene Auditors (previously called General Auditors) and Hand Hygiene Auditor Educators (previously called Gold Standard Auditors).
The Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare was jointly developed by the Commission and the NHMRC. The Guidelines, together with Commission guidance for specific organisms, provide healthcare workers and health service organisations with support to develop tailored local protocols and processes for infection prevention and control.
Antimicrobial stewardship
The Commission has developed a wide range of resources on how to reduce the risk of Coronavirus (COVID-19) exposure and infection. These resources are freely available for Australian health service organisations, healthcare professionals and consumers.
The Commission supports all healthcare professionals in continuing to provide safe, high-quality care during the pandemic, with advice on infection prevention and control, risk assessment and management, managing medications and caring for people with cognitive impairment.
Data on hand hygiene compliance are collected by states and territories for all public health service organisations, and by many private health service organisations, and reported nationally three times per year for the National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI).
The Commission has developed a suite of resources to assist health service organisations to implement AS 5369:2023 Reprocessing of reusable medical devices and other devices in health and non-health related facilities.
Annual revalidation is a method of ensuring all Hand Hygiene Auditors and Hand Hygiene Auditor Educators remain up to date with their knowledge of the 5 Moments and audit practices. This ensures valid and reliable data for the National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI).
Antimicrobial stewardship in aged care is important to improve the safe and appropriate use of antimicrobials and decrease the risk of antimicrobial resistance for older people.
The primary care sector has an important role to play in improving the safe and appropriate use of antimicrobials, and reducing patient harm and the risk of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Australia.
Surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis is the use of antimicrobials to prevent infections that may occur as a result of a surgical procedure. This page provides information on the appropriateness of this prescribing.
Environmentally sustainable infection prevention and control (IPC) practices improve the safety and quality of health care for patients.
This page includes information on Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) and reports on monitoring the burden of CDI in Australian hospitals.
This page provides information on Hand Hygiene Auditor Educator Training.
The Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Advisory Committee provides a mechanism for the Commission to consult with experts and key stakeholders on the development and implementation of national initiatives related to IPC.
These posters show the key steps for standard precautions and when caring for patients who require transmission-based precautions, due to a known or suspected infection.