Study documents about 40 percent compliance with hand-washing requirements.

Amednews.com reported on April  25 that the CDC and WHO have documented only a 40-to 50 percent compliance by medical professionals with hand-washing guidelines.  The agencies rely on "secret shopper" observers to document hand-washing compliance in studies they perform.  The CDC maintains that this poor compliance contributes to the  1.7 million annual health-care associated ["nosocomial"] infections in the United States.  In theory, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals  requires hospitals to comply  with CDC and WHO guidelines, however, the JCAHO is a toothless agency dependent on member-hospital dues, and it literally never disciplines a member in good standing.