Hospitals in Australia now have lower "superbug" infection rates due to the National Hand Hygiene program that encourages health workers to wash their hands before and after interacting with patients.

The national program proposed the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers to lessen the risk of spreading infections from one person to another. The Medical Journal of Australia conducted a study that evaluated the hand hygiene program compliance and reported that there was an increased compliance from 43 percent to 67 percent from when the program was first implemented in January 2009.

Infection rates involving Staphylococcus aureus, more commonly referred to as the golden staph, have also lessened in the hospitals that have strict adherence to the national hand hygiene program.

"The decline in the number of golden staph infections is remarkably significant," said Professor Lindsay Grayson, one of the co-authors of the study.

Results also showed that nurses were the ones who used the alcohol-based hand rub more frequently than doctors and other health practitioners. Only 52 percent of the doctors that were evaluated for the study were rated as hand hygiene compliant while there are 73 percent of the nurses who act in accordance with the national program for hand hygiene.

"The results showed that doctors are less compliant compared to nurses. We recommend more educational and informational materials be created in order to push for a higher compliance rate among the doctors in the hospitals," said Grayson, who is the director of Hand Hygiene Australia and infectious diseases department in Austin Hospital in Melbourne.

The national program for hand hygiene was initially created to target nurses who are constantly interacting with the patients. The National Hand Hygiene initiative proponents deemed that the target audience composed a big chunk of the healthcare industry compared to other health professionals.

Other groups and organizations in the medical and healthcare industry are now pushing for compulsory training on hand hygiene to further reap the benefits of a better and healthier society through hospitals and healthcare professionals. The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons are proposing that their trainee surgeons undergo a module on proper hand hygiene.