Crouse Docs Rap to Halt HAC

The background music comes from a whiny synthesizer.  The setting, which looks like a parking lot, is fake.

Lebowitz, 54, an internist specializing in endocrinology, confesses that he sees himself as a "middle-aged Jewish rapper.  I like to write raps, like for parties or anniversaries."

So he cajoled two colleagues, Crouse's senior surgical quality director who is a retired surgeon, Dennis Brown, MD, 71, and Crouse's infection control medical director, Waleed Javaid, MD, 38 to get in on the act. They donned sunglasses, special Germinator t-shirts, bling, (cardboard wrapped with foil) and joined him.

They came on board without much persuasion.

They made a HAC video and put it on YouTube to show the entire staff. And they had some fun with a very serious subject.

Lebowitz and Javaid play HACs, and Brown is clostridium difficile, or "C-diff colitis."

Todd Olrich, 31, a certified medsurge nurse specialist, plays MRSA, or methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus. And David Martin, 48, an infection prevention nurse, plays a CAUTI, catheter-associated urinary tract infection.

Lebowitz says he understands that hospital staff know how to prevent infections and adverse events, but sometimes they just forget to do every step.

"We know we have the technical components to reduce infections, but more important is engaging people to actually want to do it," he says.

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