Hand hygiene.

The toll of health care-associated infections on patients and the seeming ease of the procedure thought best able to prevent them have focused a spotlight onto hand hygiene performance. Poor performance of hand hygiene by health care workers inspires outrage in the general public. Much is understood regarding barriers to and motivators of hand hygiene performance. Guidelines encouraging use of alcohol-based hand hygiene agents have facilitated hand hygiene improvement efforts. These efforts and evidence that improved hand hygiene performance is associated with a reduction in health care-associated infections should encourage those in the hand hygiene campaigns.