Given the evidence supporting the dramatic efficacy of hand hygiene (HH) culture-change programs and use of alcohol-based hand rub (AHR) solution worldwide and locally,1-4 a national HH initiative has been launched by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, with the support of all states and territories. Although some jurisdictions have already undertaken programs in this important area,2-5 including some impressive studies described in the supplement to this issue of the Journal,6-9 this national program, organised by Hand Hygiene Australia (HHA), aims to introduce a standard HH culture-change program throughout all Australian public and private hospitals. The aims of the program are to improve HH compliance, increase the use of AHR, and establish a common system of measuring the disease outcomes associated with improved HH that can be used by hospitals to compare their performance against national and international benchmarks. The HHA program has three crucial components.

©The Medical Journal of Australia 2009 www.mja.com.au PRINT ISSN: 0025-729X ONLINE ISSN: 1326-5377