Our hospital's surgical site infection rate began to rise as compliance with our infection control policies began to slip. Cause and effect? We certainly suspected so. Our infection control professionals sat down with representatives from each department, showed them our recommended practices and standards and said, "This is what we want, and this is what our standard is." We made it clear that our ultimate goal was to protect the patients and that the best way to do that was to increase OR personnel's knowledge of the basics of infection control in these four notoriously troublesome areas. Perhaps it's time for you to review these basics with your team.