According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 99,000 people die every year from infections acquired while in hospitals. "The goal in our profession is to help cure you not introduce you to another deadly infection," said Dr. Charles Kinder, Heart Rhythm expert and Director of Heart Rhythm Program at Heart Care Centers of Illinois.
One culprit in the accidental spread of disease is the common lab coat and scrubs worn by medical personnel. According to recent studies conducted by the University of Maryland and Virginia Commonwealth University, lab coat sleeves can be an unwitting carrier of infection, opening the door to accidental exposure for patients to MRSA when in contact with hospital staff and doctors.
For this reason, the American Medical Association (AMA) recently announced plans to begin formal research on "textile transmission of infections" at their annual conference of medical professionals and physicians in Chicago. A Reference Committee proposal took special note to single out the "physician's white lab coat as a primary concern associated with textile transmission of infections."
Germ Coated
"Lab coats or scrubs can be the source of some serious bacterial hazards like MRSA," said Charles P. Gerba, PhD, a professor of Environmental Microbiology in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Arizona. "When doctors or nurses lean over the beds of patients who are carrying organisms, their clothing can become contaminated. Hours later that bacteria can still be alive and passed on through incidental contact with other patients."
Hospitals continue to make process and procedural improvements in an effort to reduce the number of accidents resulting from bacterial cross-contamination from dirty catheters and other equipment, but clothing has been largely ignored -- until now.
Antibacterial Lab Coats