Defect Rates in Touchless Versus Mechanical Hand Hygiene Dispensers

Mechanical and, more recently, touchless hand hygiene dispensers (HHDs) are frequently being installed across hospital areas to facilitate hand hygiene with alcohol-based compounds. Because touchless HHDs are typically more expensive than mechanical HHDs, the ease of use of touchless HHDs should be justifiable by high compliance rates and standardized dispensing of an appropriate volume of hand antiseptic solution over long periods of time without requiring regular maintenance. However, little is known about defect rates among touchless HHDs. Therefore, we compared the defect rate between touchless and mechanical HHDs at a tertiary-care center.