Introduction: Healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) pose a significant risk to patient's health with increasing morbidity and mortality. A large portion of HCAI can be prevented by hand hygiene, but adherence to hand hygiene has been found to be very low. Methodolgy: This study was conducted to assess the rate of hand hygiene compliance during 'my five moments of hand hygiene' as per the WHO guidelines in our intensive care units and to implement multimodal intervention strategies to improve hand hygiene compliance. Results: The average compliance amongst all HCWs in both ICUs was 45.7% before sensitisation which increased to 85.4% after sensitisation using multimodal strategies. Conclusion: Multimodal Intervention strategies such as the one we employed had a good impact in improving compliance in our ICU and these improvements can be easily duplicated in healthcare settings across the country.

Background: Hospital-associated infections are a major cause of patient morbidity and mortality. Microbiological contamination of air in the operation theaters (OTs) and Intensive care units (ICUs) is a major risk factor for surgical site and other hospital-associated infections. The aim of the study was to determine the microbial contamination of air in the OTs and ICUs of a tertiary care hospital in north India. Methods: The study was conducted in the department of microbiology, Dr. RML hospital & PGIMER, New Delhi. Air samples were collected from 9 OTs and 4 ICUs by settle plate method between January 2017–June 2018. Bacterial species were isolated and identified by conventional methods. Results: A total of 630 samples were collected from environment of various OTs and ICUs. Out of these, 130 (20%) plates showed bacterial growth and yielded 380 isolates. Emergency OT and ECS OT showed highest bacterial CFU per plate. The most common isolate was Bacillus species 472 (75%) followed by micrococcus 352(56%), Staphylococcus aureus 6 (1%). Conclusion: Routine surveillance of OT and ICU air in conventional OTs where there is no control on air quality, meticulous cleaning and strict adherence to OT and ICU protocol are essential steps for the prevention of hospital acquired infections. Further, the hospitals need to develop and implement processes for good infection control practices