Scrubs and Sandwiches: One mom’s innovative germ-fighting idea
Louisa Benitez’s son was prone to infection.
He had a heart defect and was scheduled to undergo surgery. As any concerned parent would be, she was nervous about him going under anesthesia, about the incision, about what might happen once they started poking around in his heart.
And what she saw in the hospital only made her more anxious.
Nurses and doctors were walking in and out in their surgical scrubs. Getting coffee. Sitting down with a magazine and eating a sandwich. Acting as if it was nobody else’s business. She wrote me:
As a patient, I always felt the surgical scrub was for the protection of the patient. As I waited around recently for my son's diagnostic procedure, anticipating a rather invasive surgery up ahead, I prayed that the doctor in the sandwich line ahead of me (sporting his scrubs, surgical mask and puffy blue feet coverings) would NOT be our doctor. I had to wonder if he would switch them off for cleaner attire when he went back into the hospital to check on patients or even operate on one - both of whose immune systems are compromised by disease or exposure.
She left the hospital and saw the same thing in the surrounding neighborhood. Here was a doctor wearing scrubs walking down the street. Here was another one at the ATM. Benitez told me:
While some in the community may have a legitimate concern about what kinds of diseases these scrubs are carrying into the healthy community, I personally consider this secondary to the concern about what is being brought back into the hospital to the weak and immunocompromised.
So she did something she had never felt compelled to do before. She started taking pictures of strangers. These strangers just happened to be wearing medical garb.
She didn’t know what she would do with the pictures at first, but then she had a thought. What if she could send these to the top brass at the hospital?
She would write a note saying, “Tell your staff to take their scrubs off when they leave the hospital and to put on new ones when they return.”
And what if she wasn’t the only one. What if everyone who saw people having a sandwich and wearing scrubs could snap a picture and, with a click, send it to someone in a position to do something about it? Even better, Benitez told me, the hospitals could delegate a roamer. Culprits would be routed into a continuing education program.
It seemed a small step to take to avoid painful, costly – sometimes fatal – consequences. Those consequences can seem immediate and frightening when you have a child or other loved one about to undergo a procedure. Benitez told me:
I recently called a friend who informed me she spent the entire year recovering from surgery, then repeat surgery to clean up the infection that was installed along with her hardware. It was a local hospital, and the procedure was similar to that which awaits my son.
Now, before you think that Benitez is advocating that people be paranoid about every health care worker they see walking around in scrubs, hear her out.
I realize we can't and shouldn't police health care workers every time they take a break or walk away from difficult decisions and situations, but I would like to help hospitals determine if there are any particular "culprits" that habitually mix street activities with surgical attire. I'd be happy to work out a plan with any risk management team or human resources administration to fit any hospital's needs. Maybe we can put our heads together to help reduce hospital-borne illness and infection.
What do you think of Benitez’s idea? Send me a note at askantidote [at] gmail.com or via Twitter @wheisel. I’m also asking infection experts and patient advocates for their thoughts.
Image by Army Medicine via Flickr
Related Stories:
Hospital scrubs and sandwiches should not mix
Herd Immunity: Study Shows ICU Gown, Glove Use Can Cut MRSA Rates by 40%