But we kept at it, and didn't force the issue. The tipping point came
when we determined that more than 80% of our people had found
gloves from 2 of the manufacturers we were considering that they
liked. That was when we felt we had enough buy-in — including from
the chairman of the surgical department, from the anesthesia depart-
ment and from the nursing department — to move forward. Keep in
mind, this was 9 years ago. The quality of non-latex gloves has
improved a great deal since then. If a doctor is your main obstacle,
sometimes it's more effective when you can arrange a doctor-to-doctor
discussion. They'll speak the same language and they'll hear each other
better.
New culture
It's important to recognize that the challenges are at least as much
cultural, as they are physical. When I went to medical school in the
1980s, nobody wore gloves, except when they were performing sterile
procedures. Then came HIV. And people said, "I can't put in an IV with
gloves, I can't feel the vein." Now, of course, nobody would even con-
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