Southern Health, Victoria's largest health service, has more than 2100 beds and over 13,000 staff spread over 40 sites. It admits 180,000 patients, handles over 154,000 emergency presentations and delivers over 8,400 babies annually.

The Infection Control and Epidemiology team has been involved in hand hygiene promotion and auditing since a pilot program, introduced in 2006 by the Department of Health, was commenced.

Southern Health now recognizes hand hygiene as a key performance indicator. The hand hygiene program has strong executive support and is seen as an important part of its institutional safety climate.

Innovative strategies that have seen some areas achieve hand hygiene compliance levels of over 80% include: an annual credentialing program, widespread education sessions that includes both nursing and medical students, novel marketing strategies, patient participation and research and publication.

As hand hygiene compliance increased within Southern Health noticeable improvements have been seen in nosocomial infection rates: MRSA infection within the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit has not been seen for over 3 years, Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infection (CLABSI) rates in our two Intensive Care Units have dramatically plunged and line related Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia rates have trended downward.