I know it never gets cold in Miami, so they have one less excuse to hear from clinicians, but we wanted to share with you a new practice at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida. Silvia Munoz-Price, Medical Director for Infection Control, shared that this past month they have found that white coats and scrubs were contaminated with the same pathogens as found on the hands of providers wearing the coats/scrubs. Thus, for the past 2 weeks they have been doing ID rounds wearing scrubs or bare below the elbow and
without white coats. They report receiving "no negative feedback from the staff nor patients." Way to go Team Miami!
I love it!
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, after discussing this issue with the CMO of the hospital, we decided that it would be too hard of a battle (and potentially expensive)to change the uniforms among our [thousands of] healthcare workers. Also, he was concerned about potentially diluting our main message: better compliance with hand hygiene.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the team member with the tie is a pharmacist.