I guess that a hospital is like the military in that there has to be clearly delineated chain of command, but some points raised in the article could be solved by empowering doctors and especially nurses:

"chlorhexidine soap, shown to reduce line infections, was available in fewer than a third of the I.C.U.s. This was a problem only an executive could solve"

If nurses and doctors were empowered, that problem probably wouldn't have arisen.

I agree that other solutions are more in executives' territory: "they persuaded Arrow International, one of the largest manufacturers of central lines, to produce a new central-line kit that had both the drape and chlorhexidine in it."