Going anti-viral: Hospital’s video contest targets staff infections

‘Lights…Camera…Scrub!’ campaign inspires SSM Health Care employees to wash their hands

Even hospital communicators concede: Hand washing is a blah topic.

“When you start talking about the proper way to wash your hands and why it’s important, people’s eyes glaze over,” says Christopher Sutton, corporate communications manager at SSM Health Care.

Sutton and his team were determined to make hand washing fun—and show how important it is to the health of the hospital.

SSM Health Care system, which includes 15 hospitals in four states, sponsored “Lights…Camera…Scrub!” a first-ever video contest that featured employees washing their hands.

“We chose this video contest because it was a great way to make the topic exciting and get all of our employees in on the fun,” Sutton says.

It proved to be an effective way to reach 23,000 employees—and help stop the spread of H1N1 and other contagious diseases.

Submissions were accepted from late June until mid-September. Voting ran for two weeks in September. Winners were announced in late October.