Handwashing compliance in a French university hospital: new perspective with the introduction of hand-rubbing with a waterless alcohol-based solution

The baseline compliance with handwashing in a French university hospital was as low as the compliance rates reported in other countries, i.e., less than 50%. By introducing the use of hand-rubbing with an alcoholic solution, as a substitution method for both handwashing with soap and handwashing with an antiseptic agent, we significantly improved hand-cleansing compliance. Despite these encouraging results, mainly due to the accessibility of these non-aqueous products, three major obstacles remain before a wide acceptance by healthcare workers: distrust in terms of efficacy, distrust in terms of skin tolerance and lack of knowledge on hand-cleansing indications.