Patients need to be bold and ask doctors or nurses if they have washed their hands before they begin an examination, says the Ontario Hospital Association.

The public needs to help out in order to stop the spread of hospital infections like C. difficile, a potentially deadly diarrhea, by making sure health care providers scrub up. To that end, the association kicks off its "Clean Hands Protect Lives" campaign today with Health Minister David Caplan at Mississauga's Trillium Health Centre.

The $428,000 campaign pays for strategically placed posters, brochures and cards on how to wash hands correctly in 14 different languages throughout hospitals, said OHA president Tom Closson.

Last month, Ontario's auditor general revealed in a special report on hospital superbugs that only 28 per cent of doctors at 10 hospitals washed their hands between patients.

Those numbers are simply not good enough, said Closson.

"We've known for a long time hand washing is important to reduce the spread of infection in hospitals. It hasn't got a lot of media attention until recently," he said.

Others who need to improve their handwashing are people coming in and out of hospitals, nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

Next spring, hospitals will report the extent to which care providers are washing hands using appropriate techniques.

"In the end we want compliance rates close to 100 per cent,'' Closson said.