Hospital Scrubs a Deadly Mess

I see people walking around in public in scrubs all the time – next time, I’m going to bring this up:

scrubs

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.

The problem is that some medical personnel wear the same unlaundered uniforms to work day after day. They start their shift already carrying germs such as C.diff, drug-resistant enterococcus or staphylococcus. Doctors’ lab coats are probably the dirtiest. At the University of Maryland, 65% of medical personnel confess they change their lab coat less than once a week, though they know it’s contaminated. Fifteen percent admit they change it less than once a month. Superbugs such as staph can live on these polyester coats for up to 56 days.

[Click to continue reading Opinion: Hospital Scrubs’ Deadly Mess – WSJ.com]

1 thought on “Hospital Scrubs a Deadly Mess

  1. Katie says:

    Interesting article. However, in my experience working in a large hospital for 5 years, my co-workers always washed their scrubs before wearing them again…not sure about the lab coat part.

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