[Clean hands campaign: no chance for healthcare associated infections].

About 500,000 healthcare associated infections can be observed each year in Germany, about 20-30 %, that means 100,000 to 150,000 cases, are avoidable. Healthcare associated infections lead to increased mortality and prolongation of stay. The average prolongation of stay are 4 days, therefore about 2 Million additional hospital days can be determined. In other words about 6 hospitals with 1000 beds each are only caring for patients with healthcare associated infections. Experts agree that careful hand disinfection is the most important procedure to avoid transmission of pathogens. Studies demonstrate that an increasing compliance to hand disinfection leads to a reduction of healthcare associated infections. The clean hands campaign is a joint effort of the National Reference Centre for Surveillance of Nosocomial Infections, the German Society for Quality Management in Healthcare and the Patient Safety Campaign has the objective to achieve a significant improvement of hand hygiene.