Chapter 2 of SuperFreakonomics answers the question of why suicide bombers should buy life insurance. As part of this discussion the authors discuss the issue of ranking physicians. One way is to assess the life expectancy of their patients -- the better the doctor the longer their patients live. But, doctors, responding to incentives (the best doctors get paid the most), might try to game this system by only accepting the most healthy patients.
So, applying the principle that doctors respond to incentives, how could we harness that power to get doctors to wash their hands? Apparently, moral suasion doesn't work. An alternative to moral suasion is economic incentives. Suppose that doctors found in violation of the washing hands policy were fined, say $1000 each time? The incidence of germy hands might fall. But what about the policing problem? I suggest a sign on patient rooms that says something like the signs at retail outlets: if your cashier doesn't give you your receipt then your purchase is free. In the doctor case it might be, if you doctor doesn't wash his/her hands upon entering your room then your visit is free. For operating rooms we'd need some additional monitoring and enforcement, but you get the idea: doctors who don't wash their hands doesn't help me understand climate policy all that much.
