Clean Hands CampaignImprovement of

Clean Hands Campaign
Improvement of hand hygiene, with the aim of minimizing nosocomial infection, is a high priority of the World Health Organization (WHO). The promotion of effective measures to improve hand hygiene (e1) is therefore one of the five foremost goals of the WHO's current worldwide Patient Safety Initiative (Announce Action on Patient Safety [High 5s] Initiative, Washington, DC, 4 November 2006). By September 2008 114 countries had given written undertakings to implement these goals. In Germany, the Clean Hands Campaign ("Aktion saubere Hände") was launched on 1 January 2008 under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Health (e2). By 14 June 2009, 550 hospitals had signed up to the campaign, including two thirds of the university hospitals. The goal is to establish hand disinfection as a decisive quality parameter anchored firmly in clinical routine.