Quality of surgical scrub in a heart hospital: Do not take it for granted

The role of scrub in the prevention of post-surgery infections is well-known. This study aimed to investigate the inputs and process of surgical scrub in operating rooms of the largest heart hospital of northwest Iran.
This study took place with a before-after design as a clinical audit in 2014. A check list developed based on national and international standards of surgical hand scrub was used as the study instrument. Checklists were completed by observation of surgical team scrubbing in real situation. Descriptive statistics and graphs were used to describe the results.
A compliance degree with the standards for prerequisites, equipment, general items, process and time of scrub was observed as 58%, 55%, 33%, 68% and 22%, respectively. The compliance degree after the intervention was 72%, 66%, 66%, 85% and 61%, respectively. Improvement was observed in all studied aspects of scrub. The total score of compliance with the standards changed from 47% to 70%. The main issues were incorrect order of scrubbing the areas of the hands, incorrect way of scrubbing the arms, insufficient scrubbing the arms (not above elbow), and lack of awareness about hospital’s policy on scrub time.
The results showed defects in the surgical scrub of the studied hospital and that the compliance with the standards can be improved by simple interventions. Periodical audit and observation of the scrub and then feedback is recommended.