Hand washing gift certificate campaign sparks interest
Monday November 26, 2007 -- Jason Thompson
Dr. Michael Gardam says he’s received a lot of polarized feedback since the University Health Network (UHN) made headlines Nov. 20 with a plan to reward healthcare workers with Tim Hortons gift certificates for washing their hands.

As part of the organization’s overall plan to improve hand hygiene compliance, Gardam, UHN’s director of infection prevention and control, borrowed an idea from a hospital in Los Angeles and purchased $1,000 worth of $2 Tim Hortons gift certificates to hand out to employees seen washing their hands at Princess Margaret, Toronto General and Toronto Western hospitals.

Studies have shown that more than 12,000 people in Canada die each year as a result of hospital-acquired infections. Gardam’s goal is to reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections at UHN to zero. UHN is a Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC) subscriber.

While some people say they recognize the value of getting healthcare workers to wash their hands, even if it involves token rewards, others took a more negative stance. One person even went so far as to tell Gardam he should have his medical licence revoked.

The negative feedback is centered on two issues.

The first is how can a hospital hand out gift certificates for fast food?

Gardam’s response is that he doesn’t tell people to go fill up on glazed doughnuts with the $2 gift certificates and that people are free to purchase coffee, tea or milk.

People who get upset about the gift certificates are missing the point, he says. People shouldn’t be upset about the gift certificates they should be upset about the fact that up to 12,000 Canadians die a year from hospital-acquired infections.

“Frankly, none of that surprises me. I fully expected for this to be a polarizing issue,” he says.

Other detractors say that giving out gift certificates as a reward for cleanliness trivializes the issue and that health-care providers should keep their hands clean anyway.

“This is not a moral issue. If you make it a moral issue, people will tell you to get lost,” Gardam says. “You have to sell this to people and however you sell it, in my mind, really doesn’t matter that much.”

Gardam says simply beating people over the head with the message that they’re not washing their hands enough isn’t the way to bring about fundamental change.

Gardam says a few other hospitals have expressed interest and he has every intention to continue the campaign he started Nov. 22.

“When we went around yesterday and handed out our coupons to people, they were really pleased,” Gardam says. “People I think aren’t used to having somebody take them aside and say, ‘hey, we want to thank you for washing your hands. Great job, keep it up.’"

“It really created a buzz on the floor and that’s what I want to do,” he says.