# 5544
In recent years lab coats, long sleeves, neckties, and jewelry in the healthcare setting have all come under increased scrutiny as concerns over HAIs (Hospital Acquired Infections) – including MRSA – have escalated.
Long sleeves, many fear, could facilitate the transfer of bacteria from one patient to the next.
In 2007, Britain’s NHS decided to ban the wearing of long-sleeved white coats, wristwatches, and neckties by healthcare providers in hospital wards.
In the United States, the AMA (American Medical Assoc.) considered a “bare below the elbows” dress code during their annual meeting in 2009, but decided the issue needed more study.
Some healthcare facilities – like the Mayo Clinic – have pushed ahead with their own dress codes to address the issue.
Today UPI is reporting that New York State legislators are considering mandating a `hygienic dress code for medical professionals’ – one that may eventually prohibit the wearing of jewelry, wristwatches, neckties, long sleeves, and the iconic white lab coat.
N.Y. may ban germy doctor ties, lab coats
Published: May 8, 2011 at 2:04 AM
The article goes on to say that if passed, a 25-person advisory council – to be appointed by the commissioner of health – would provide recommendations for a new medical dress code.
While `textile transfer’ of bacteria in the healthcare setting makes sense, the scientific evidence linking sleeve cuffs and neckties to actual HAIs is scant, mostly anecdotal, and sometimes even contradictory.
While not exactly a smoking gun, in 2009 researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond demonstrated that large inoculums of MRSA,vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), and pan–resistant Acinetobacter (PRA) bacteria could be transferred from a white cotton lab coat to pigskin.
The rap against lab coats and neckties has primarily been that they are not usually freshly laundered every day.
One study showed that 62% of doctors surveyed waited 2-weeks or longer to launder their coats.
But earlier this year, a study (see The Long And The Short Of It) found no statistical difference between the amount of bacteria of freshly laundered short sleeve uniforms versus infrequently laundered white coats after only 8 hours wear.
The argument can still be made, however, that long sleeve cuffs (and neckties) are more likely to come in contact with a series of patients than the fabric of short sleeved shirts.
With an estimated 99 thousand deaths each year in the United States from nosocomial (hospital acquired) infections each year, the stakes are enormous.
Yet the science proving the supposed benefits of a dress code change is sparse.
So, for now at least, the the debate over the fate of lab coats, long sleeves, and neckties in the United States continues with no resolution in sight.
