The effect of a prospective intervention program with automated monitoring of hand hygiene performance in long-term and acute-care units at a Veterans Affairs medical center.

Objective: To measure the impact of an automated hand hygiene monitoring system (AHHMS) and an intervention program of complementary strategies on hand hygiene (HH) performance in both acute-care and long-term care (LTC) units.

Design: Prospective, nonrandomized, before-and-after intervention study.

Setting: Single Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), with 2 acute-care units and 6 LTC units.