Videos Go 'Viral' in Fight Against HAIs

In between the lyrics, the screen flashes statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, such as "50%-60% of healthcare-associated infections can be prevented by adherence to hand hygiene," and "The typical hand wash rate in healthcare workers is 40%."

Brown said Lieu's video won because "he was able to translate an important message with an emotional connection that can be more powerful, psychologically, in a way that can influence someone's behavior.

"It demonstrates the reality of what can happen in a healthcare setting if someone doesn't value something as simple as hand hygiene when patients come to us for healing," she said. And it appealed to a younger workforce that's coming up in healthcare settings that now deal with increasingly complex patients.

One interesting aspect of many of these videos is the diversity of healthcare occupations represented. One produced at Memorial Hospital in South Bend IN begins with Kreg Gruber, chief operating officer, mumbling to himself at his desk over a bottle of hand gel.

Then he starts singing the lyrics of the Black Eyed Peas song, "Let's get it started in here."

"That's it," he says, as he jumps up from the desk, and the scene shifts to a hallway filled with dancing healthcare workers all singing "Let's get it started. Let's get it started in here."