Giving Compass' Take:

• Clean Clinic is one of the three pillars of an initiative to help encourage infection prevention approaches in global healthcare. Achieving "Clean Clinic" status helps facilities set WASH goals and make improvements. 

• What is the best way to help facilities across countries achieve "Clean Clinic" status? How can donors help with WASH projects?

• Here are some WASH resources for funders.

As the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) manager for Save the Children’s Clean Clinic program in Guatemala, I saw firsthand how this novel, low-cost strategy delivered very encouraging results over a short period of time in 2018-19.

Clean Clinic – one of the three pillars of the BASICS initiative – is our proven process that empowers healthcare staff to make infection prevention improvements through easy-to-use monitoring, accountability and rewards systems.

In Guatemala, we implemented Clean Clinic at 11 Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance health facilities, including district and department hospitals. It enabled and motivated the facilities to set WASH goals and make incremental improvements towards the ultimate goal of obtaining “Clean Clinic” status.

We found that even small improvements made a difference in providing patients with better quality services. For example, facilities enrolled in Clean Clinic:

  • Improved the management of water quality for consumption
  • Improved solid and liquid waste management processes
  • Ensured that hand-washing stations were identified and functional and had the necessary supplies
  • Assigned operation and maintenance roles and responsibilities

Clean Clinic’s 10-step improvement process and monthly action plans made it easier for facilities to make WASH improvements despite limited external financing. These activities contributed to quality of care improvements and very likely the reduction of puerperal and neonatal sepsis infections.

The innovativeness of the strategy was also seen in the establishment or revitalizing of infection prevention and control committees at each facility. They monitored bi-monthly evaluations and made plans for timely improvements to achieve Clean Clinic standards in the least time possible.

Read the full article about clean clinic status at Save the Children.