Electronic compliance monitoring refers to technology that measures and reports hand hygiene performance via unbiased and automated reporting 24 hours a day / 7 days a week. Data can either be collected at the community-based level or at the individual-based level. The individual-based level monitors activity via a device such as a name badge or bracelet worn by the person.

Infection preventionists are aware that direct observation has shortcomings in accuracy and have begun to use this term to refer to their observation metrics as a way of disclaiming that it may not be representative of actual hospital hand hygiene compliance performance.

Industry data indicate a clear and compelling clinical need and business case for utilizing electronic monitoring technology to improve hand hygiene compliance:
Growing concern about the frequency of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) has made hand hygiene an increasingly important topic for hospital administrators.

• 722,000 infections reported each year¹
• Resulting in 75,000 deaths each year, attributable to HAI’s¹  
• 1 out of every 20 hospitalized patients will contract an HAI¹
• Annual attributable cost of HAI’s is $20-40 billion dollars²
• Represent a major threat to patient safety³
• Hand Hygiene Compliance rates in the U.S. is less than 50%⁴

And, current methods of measuring hand hygiene compliance do not accurately reflect performance.

1 http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/surveillance/index.html, with reference to full report (CDC HAI Prevalence Survey, Magill SS, Edwards JR, Bamberg W, et al. Multistate Point-Prevalence Survey of Health Care - Associated Infections. External Web Site Icon N Engl J Med 2014;370:1198-208.) 
2 Scott, Douglas. The Direct Medical costs of Healthcare-Associated Infections in U.S. Hospitals and the Benefits of Prevention. Center for Infectious Diseases Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. March 2009 
3 Ted Pincock RN, CIC , Paul Bernstein RN, CIC, Shawn Warthman MBA, Elizabeth Holst BA Bundling hand hygiene interventions and measurement to decrease health care associated infections. American Journal of Infection Control 40 (2012) S18-S27 
4 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings: Recommendations of the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee and the HICPAC/SHEA/APIC/IDSA Hand Hygiene Task Force. MMWR 2002;51(No. RR-16):[22].