The clipon tie thing is pretty damn sad. Although, about 5 years ago, there was a brief movement for clip on ties and mandatory tie tacks for medical professionals, which I was 1000% behind... the reason? In a randomized test, 98% of freshly laundered doctors' ties which had been worn for 6 hours or less were contaminated with bacteria. And we're not talking the little guys, either... I believe it was 60-something percent with MRSA, 80-something percent with E. coli and 90-something percent with staph aureus (numbers off the top of my head, as this was a while ago).
It happens, of course, because the doc comes in, washes his hands, sees the patient, leaves, adjusts his tie, and sees the next patient.
The study encompassed several large hospitals as well as private practices and clinics, and was large enough to conclude that greater than half of the crossinfections one finds in hospitals aren't from the nurses, but from the docs who can't keep their hands off their ties.
I won't let them touch me unless they've washed their hands right in front of me... with soap, not just run them under the faucet. My super awesome asthma doc of awesomeness got me in the habit and told me that any doc who refused to wash their hands *with soap* before examining me wasn't worthy of touching me *anyway*. I miss her a lot.
Also a point made in the article, IIRC. They got them dry cleaned before the study as a means of making sure that they were testing only what made it onto the tie through either airborne particles or the own doctor's hands, since those are the two types of contamination found daily (as opposed to, say, a patient coughing blood onto the tie, after which a doc would - hopefully - have the sense to remove it). But the point was made that if 98% of ties were moderately to heavily contaminated with (on average) 2-3 types of bacteria after only 6 hours, it's pretty safe to assume that 100% of doctors' ties are basically crawling with bugs.
It happens, of course, because the doc comes in, washes his hands, sees the patient, leaves, adjusts his tie, and sees the next patient.
The study encompassed several large hospitals as well as private practices and clinics, and was large enough to conclude that greater than half of the crossinfections one finds in hospitals aren't from the nurses, but from the docs who can't keep their hands off their ties.
Reply
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment