THE PM360 TRAILBLAZER AWARDS 2011
MEDICAL DEVICE COMPANY OF THE YEAR WINNER

KIMBERLY-CLARK

There’s nothing glamorous about preventing Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs). It requires careful planning, teamwork, and meticulous attention to detail. Success is measured by what doesn’t happen. But Kimberly-Clark Health Care is a company that sets itself difficult and ambitious goals, plans carefully, follows through with tenacity, and gets impressive results. So maybe it’s not surprising that the company is a leader in HAI prevention, among other things. What is a bit surprising is its simultaneous flair for imaginative marketing and commitment to innovation.

The Knowledge Network
Let’s start with a conspicuous fact.
Kimberly-Clark is extremely serious about following through with customers. Its stated mission is not just to sell good products, but to ensure their effective use by in-service training, clinical research and accredited education. The centerpiece of this effort is the “Knowledge Network,” an array of mostly accredited education programs for HCPs (57 at last count) which not only provide extremely focused training but are also enormously valuable to customers with a professional need for continuing medical education. Topics range from “Air Currents, Barrier Fabrics, and Bacterial Penetration” to “Pandemic Preparation.” The programs are available on DVD, online, in live classes, and aboard the K-C Education Bus, which makes stops at hospitals across the country.

It’s hard to imagine better marketing than the Knowledge Network, which secures customer relationships and successful product use at the same time. But in 2008, Kimberly-Clark leveraged the Network’s value further by means of the award-winning Not On My Watch Campaign, which has shaped the company’s image ever since. Its main theme was clinical education, chosen after 91 percent of survey respondents told KCHC marketers providing clinical education was the mark of a leader. The campaign introduced the resource/education website www.HAIwatch.com and the K-C Education Bus, winning a 2009 Trailblazer Professional Campaign Award.

This year the “My MIC-KEY*” Facebook page—which helps users learn and share best practices for using the company’s MIC-KEY* feeding tubes—gave a new twist to the focus on education. It has 884 fans so far and high engagement from ordinary users—gaining 80 fans overnight upon its introduction. Another new resource website—www.vap.kchealthcare.com—focuses on the company’s latest technology for preventing Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia, building on the HAIWatch model.

Completely Solving the Problem
When it comes to social responsibility, Kimberly-Clark is a heavyweight. In 2011 it was ranked number eight (out of 1000) in corporate responsibility by CR Magazine, among other awards. Here’s a true story that (partially) explains why: To promote recycling of sterilization wrap, the company worked with the Rhode Island School of Design to develop sustainable new concepts and designs for repurposing the wrap. Kimberly-Clark also developed a campaign called “Save the Daisies” (www.savethedaisies.kchealthcare.com/index.aspx) to inform customers and reward them for recycling. True to form, the company again combined originality with a remarkable insistence on completely solving the problem.

This determination to succeed is rooted in Kimberly-Clark’s employees. For example, the company and its highly motivated workforce in Neenah, WI contributed the following to the Fox Valley, WI community last year: $1.7 million to United Way; $752,000 in matching gifts to 200 organizations; $233,000 in Community Partners grants to 240 organizations; $600,000 in contributions to 52 area nonprofits; $600,000 in product donations; $600,000 in college scholarships; 24,500 community volunteer hours. We are proud to declare these dedicated folks our Medical Device Company of the Year.

The Kimberly-Clark Education Bus provides CE certificates to doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals through interactive educational programs and product demonstrations. Carson Organ, 7, and Jake Organ, 10, showing off their MIC-KEY* feeding tubes before a football game. Rhode Island School of Design students Kyle and Jerome present a relief tent created solely from KIMGUARD* sterilization wrap.

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