How can compliance with hand hygiene be improved in specialized areas of a university hospital?

Hand hygiene is considered to be the pillar of infection control and prevention. Despite national and international recommendations on hand hygiene, compliance remains low. Basic requirements allowing adequate hand hygiene compliance, in theory at least, are well known. Why then is it so hard to achieve acceptable compliance despite sufficient access to hand disinfectant dispensers, repeated training, and participation in national campaigns? Could it be that hand hygiene is regarded as too laborious, and changes to the established work-flow are needed to increase compliance? Some practicable examples are presented and pitfalls in defining compliance are discussed. Ownership for compliance must come from within clinical teams, and not solely driven from the infection control team. Support from the hospital management is essential. Ideally, the concepts presented allow a simple and efficient implementation of hand hygiene as part of the clinical work-flow to achieve an increase in compliance in the longer term.