Planning Surgery? Bring a Sharpie - Well Blog - NYTimes.com#comment-71591#comment-71591

Planning Surgery? Bring a Sharpie - Well Blog - NYTimes.com#comment-71591#comment-71591: "Contamination from marking pens should be the least of a patient’s worries. Making sure you get the right surgery on the right body part is a much bigger concern, and making sure you don’t get a hospital acquired infection due to lack of handwashing should be right up there at the top of the list.
Pay close attention: Compliance for hand hygiene in hospitals is still only about 50% according to an article in Hospitals & Health Systems October 2008 issue.
Take an active role in your care and ask clinicians to wash their hands if you didn’t see it happen with your own eyes. It might save you from an HAI and save a few of the 5 BILLION dollars HAIs cost the industry annually.
— dcc-online.com"