Active resisters & organizational constipators: Do you know them?

A new qualitative study by Sanjay Saint at the University of Michigan appears in the May issue of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. His team interviewed multiple individuals at 14 hospitals to determine barriers in the implementation of evidence based practices to reduce HAIs. Through these interviews he identified two prototypical personalities that wreak havoc for infection control programs. The first is the active resister, a person who vigorously and openly opposes change. The active resisters were often identified as surgeons and anesthesiologists. The second problematic individual is the organizational constipator. This is a mid- to high-level administrator who prevents or delays actions without active resistance, forcing infection control personnel to invest more energy to work around these individuals. Though the authors note that the findings of the study may not be generalizable to all hospitals, I’d bet a sizable sum of money that what they describe is a universal phenomenon.