This large Australian study sought to examine whether hand hygiene compliance rates may serve as a reliable indicator of hospital accreditation outcomes. The study revealed that hand hygiene rates across 118 acute hospitals in New South Wales improved from 67.7% in late 2010 to over 80% in early 2013. Smaller hospitals had higher compliance than the largest hospitals. The authors expected to identify an association between hand hygiene rates, accreditation outcomes, and infection control scores, but their results did not support this hypothesis. A previous study from Canada found that increasing overall hand hygiene adherence did not result in decreased rates of key hospital-acquired infections, possibly due to a ceiling effect. A recent AHRQ WebM&M perspective reviewed advances in promoting hand hygiene compliance.