Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess hospital in Boston offers another view on how bacteria is transmitted in view of the recent decision in the UK to ban the white coats...BD
Of course, I immediately asked our infection control people about this, seeing a potential opportunity to improve patient care and make life more comfortable for male doctors.
Excerpts from their response: The focus should remain on good hand hygiene and cleaning of equipment (especially stethoscopes) all of which actually touch the patient. If health care workers cleaned their hands well immediately before touching a patient, it wouldnt matter if their ties, white coats, palm pilots or pagers were colonized, since these things presumably have minimal contact with the patient, if any. Although all of these fomites have been shown in studies to become colonized, there has never been data proving transmission of infection to a patient. This topic comes up every year it is a big distraction from the real issues. The CDC and SHEA (Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America) agree with this stance.
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