Twice in one week!

We've again added to the list of dumb things hospitals have done in the name of infection prevention. This one is not just stupid, it's also sad:

• Not allowing dying patients to have a private room, so that MRSA patients can be placed in single rooms. This begs the question: is infection prevention the be-all and end-all of inpatient care? Could the hospital not cohort the MRSA patients so that dying patients and their families be afforded some dignity? And importantly, this issue could be avoided all together if all hospitals were required to have all single patient rooms.

Other banned items and activities from our archives:

• Christmas decorations
• Aquariums
• Flowers
• Sitting on the hospital bed
• Reducing hospital visiting hours from 4 hours to 3.5 hours
• Magazines in waiting rooms
• Banning a wooden train from a general pediatric surgery clinic that does not care for immunocompromised children

Image: Vivienne Flesher, New York Times