Tired of adding new infection control products without any improvement? Does it seem like new products or processes only provide a short-lived change in your organization? The problem likely doesn't lie in your product or process... It's your organizational culture.

The normal mindset seems to be "let's go to such and such trade show, see a lot of new infection control products, listen to what other healthcare organizations are doing and then decide on two or three things to add to your own organization."

You do this because you want to be on par with other organizations. You want to know their secrets so you get the same or better results. Of course you want the best equipment, the latest tracking devices, etc. However, you should be less focused with the latest infection control product (think of a child being distracted by a shiny toy) and more focused on changing the culture of your organization.

Infection control is more than just telling people about germs, pathogens, showing demonstrations, ...

Indoctrinating your staff and providing incentives that are aligned with optimal standards will get you stared on the path. But they need more. They need an infection fighting mindset. This is what we call "The OUTFOX mindset." We are not trying to sell this mindset- only share it. Sure we sell infection control trading products, but those products are always secondary to getting the organization's culture aligned first.

OUTFOX infection. It's more than a saying or marketing quip. It's a mantra to change a mindset. Say it aloud "OUTFOX infection." Say it again "OUTFOX infection."

The Fox symbolizes:

Continuous Improvement

Commitment to High Standards

Acceptance of an Ever-Searching Mindset

Curiosity for Innovation

Commitment to the Team Mentality

Commitment to Help Others

Focus on Prevention (Less on Treatment)

Ability to Foresee Issues

Ability to Stop Issues to Avoid Problem

OUTFOX is an interesting word. It's not a word that denotes a lackluster approach to infection control. It's a word that speaks of action, of smart decisions and of team work to avoid infection. It's a word that doesn't speak of retreat or that we're running from infection. OUTFOX says that we will use all our intelligence, resources and effort to successfully navigate our organization to the fewest amount of infection issues.

Within your staff, you can create fanatics for OUTFOXing infection, so much so that you can add it to your organizational vocabulary.

Close your eyes and imagine excited and responsible staff members that are implementing high infection standards... Without having the pressure of punishments hanging over their heads. Will you lose some members of your staff because they don't want to participate? Yes, and that is a good thing. In order to change the core of your organization, there will be some members that decide to leave or it will be obvious that they don't fit in.

Likely, the people that leave are those that are bringing your organization down. Not necessarily down with standards, but most likely with attitude. Most of us have experienced a time when a lot of work and money is put into implementing a campaign only to have it fail because of lack of enthusiasm. Further, the lack of enthusiasm probably stemmed from a few staff members that think they are better than participating, know everything or are burned out.

So, what route are you going to take from here? Just keep buying the newest trinket or implementing a scattered approach with new processes? Let me answer for you- NO. Start with developing a program that touches upon every position (or department group), involves key management and has directives and goals. Get a goal that has incentives (doesn't have to be monetary) and excites everyone.

We are not trying to sell you a product or push your organization toward a certain process, we are just try to get you organization excited moving in the right direction faster.