Scrubs: keep 'em clean, keep 'em off the streets

From what I understand, the great advances in wellness and longevity from the later 19th to the early 20th century were due far more to relatively simple public health measures than to the advancement of medical knowledge. Yet have we learned our lesson?

You see them everywhere -- nurses, doctors and medical technicians in scrubs or lab coats. They shop in them, take buses and trains in them, go to restaurants in them, and wear them home. What you can't see on these garments are the bacteria that could kill you.

Dirty scrubs spread bacteria to patients in the hospital and allow hospital superbugs to escape into public places such as restaurants. Some hospitals now prohibit wearing scrubs outside the building, partly in response to the rapid increase in an infection called "C. diff." A national hospital survey released last November warns that Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections are sickening nearly half a million people a year in the U.S., more than six times previous estimates.

I've been appalled at the practice of wearing scrubs as street clothes for years, ever since my ex went through medical school. I would hear all about what the med students were doing, and then I'd see them at the gym, working out in the same scrubs they'd been wearing for rounds. As I recall, both in med school and during residency, fresh scrubs were provided by the hospital, but many med students and residents would wear theirs home and back, along with their fluids-bathed clogs -- including my ex, over my rather heated protests. From the Wall Street Journal.

ADDENDUM: While the article mentions endeavors within the medical community to remedy the situation, including hospitals prohibiting scrubs from being worn outside their doors, what is not discussed is the possibility of legislative action on the municipal, state, or even federal level. More publicity would also be welcome, to the point where wearing scrubs in public outside of a medical facility would turn heads.

Posted by David on January 10, 2009 10:55 PM