The Joint Commission and eight hospitals and health systems from around the country have joined together to fight dangerous breakdowns in patient care by launching the Center for Transforming Healthcare. The first initiative of the group will be targeting hand-washing failures, which cause infections that kill nearly 100,000 people in the U.S. annually and cost hospitals as much as $29 billion.

Addressing the hand-washing issue will be Cedars-Sinai Health System, Los Angeles; Exempla Lutheran Medical Center, Wheat Ridge, Colo.; Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee, Wis.; The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System, Baltimore; Memorial Hermann Health Care System, Houston; Trinity Health, Novi, Mich; Virtua, Marlton, N.J.; and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, N.C.