We owe a great deal to Ignaz Semmelweis. ‘Ignaz who?’, you might well ask.
Tragically, despite what we owe him, his discovery cost him dearly. He died in dreadful and humiliating circumstances, scorned by his medical peers, and confined in a lunatic asylum through the actions of some medical colleagues. Beaten by guards at the asylum, he died, at the age of 47, within two weeks of being detained.
The reason for his being scorned? In his work as an obstetrician he discovered a simple practice that reduced maternal deaths six-fold. Semmelweis proposed the practice of washing hands with chlorinated lime solutions in 1847. Ignaz Semmelweis is the father of hand washing: he discovered the efficacy of washing hands in combating infection.
A six-fold reduction! And yet even today, research shows that medical professionals, especially in developing countries, have poor adherence to good hand washing protocols. Try Googling the topic. It is sobering.
Please get this right for yourself. And for those around you. It is time we all take thorough hand washing seriously and learn to do it well, and often.
Lean thinking, applied to many industries, including healthcare, has shown significant benefits. And yet, even for adopters, the adherence rate of its protocols and practices is poor – probably way worse than that of hand washing adherence by healthcare workers. What does the poor adherence of hand washing teach us? Does it show us just how hard it is for people, and that goes for all of us, to adopt and adhere to good habits? Think of 5S adherence as just one example in the world of lean thinking.
Years ago, the CEO of a Japanese continuous improvement consultancy told me, ‘It is impossible to over-emphasise the importance of 5S.’ Taiichi Ohno of Toyota can be seen as the father of 5S. Thankfully, he is celebrated and did not suffer the dreadful humiliation and demise vested on Ignaz Semmelweis.
Now we should take to heart, ‘It is impossible to over-emphasise the importance of hand washing.’
Please encourage yourself and your colleagues, in both. They are impossible to over-emphasise. But hands first. You owe it to yourself and those around you: take your life in your hands. And sing happy birthday Dear Ignaz as you wash them.
Take care. Stay well.
Norman Faull
While acknowledging the uncertainty of our times, we can share that the following online trainings, or on-line component training, will be continuing as scheduled
