By Megan M. Krischke, contributor
July 19, 2010 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1.7 million health care-associated infections occur every year in hospitals across the United States, and that 99,000 of the patients who become infected will die. Not only do these infections cost many people their lives, each infection costs the hospital, on average, about $30,000. For these reasons, health care-acquired infections, and their prevention, have the attention of the medical community.
While hand-washing and other sterilizing precautions have received a lot of recent publicity, little attention has been given to the possibility that health care workers’ clothing may be spreading disease from patient to patient.
That, however, is beginning to change.
A board of trustees report at the American Medical Association’s (AMA) June 2010 meeting recommended that the AMA encourage research in textile transmission of health care-associated infections, noting, among other things, that “a physician’s white coat constitutes a primary concern associated with textile transmission of infections.”
Charles Gerba, Ph.D., microbiologist at the University of Arizona, has been focusing his attention on the germs found on scrubs.
In fact, the classic physician’s lab coat is so highly suspected of spreading disease that Britain has already made a lab coat with a three-quarter length sleeve their standard.
But lab coats aren’t the only transgressors, according to Charles Gerba, Ph.D., a professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona in the Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science and in the Department of Epidemiology in the College of Public Health. Known as “Dr. Germ” in some circles, Gerba has been focusing his attention on scrub clothing lately.
“We’ve been looking at hospital scrubs—comparing those that were home-laundered with facility-laundered scrubs, new scrubs and with those that were unlaundered after a day of use,” he explained. “What we found was that the home-laundered scrubs had almost as many bacteria as those that weren’t laundered after having been worn all day. This is probably because at home people aren’t using bleach and are washing in cold, rather than hot, water.”
Gerba’s research also found that 79 percent of unwashed operating room scrubs tested positive for coliform bacteria, E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus and/or other gram- positive cocci.
“When you launder your scrubs at home, your scrubs can pick up germs from your family’s laundry and vice versa. You bring germs home to your family and then take other germs back to the hospital,” stated Gerba.
In order to effectively launder scrubs, lab coats or other work clothes at home, Gerba recommends washing only work clothes together, always using hot water and bleach, and drying for at least 45 minutes. If using a color-safe bleach, increase the recommended amount by 25 percent.
While these laundering techniques allow you to start the day more or less germ-free, picking up germs throughout the day is virtually inevitable. Gerba and his team of researchers found that thighs, pockets and necklines tend to collect the most germs, and that scrubs that were exposed to MRSA were still carrying that bacteria six hours later.
Charles Kinder, M.D., cardiologist, has developed a line of lab coats and scrubs which are bacteria-resistant.
"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," noted Gerba in a recent AMA press release.
Because of the likelihood of picking up and passing on germs during the course of a shift, Charles Kinder, M.D., director of the heart rhythm program at Heart Care Centers of Illinois, believes the medical industry needs to invest in bacteria-resistant uniforms.
“If you were going for an elective procedure, would you choose the hospital that uses bacteria-resistant scrubs and lab coats or one that doesn’t?” Kinder asked.
Kinder has begun marketing bacteria-resistant lab coats at www.DocFrocs.com and plans to have bacteria-resistant scrubs available in September 2010. His DocFrocs carry the tag line “No Stain, No Staph, No Stink” because they resist stains from coffee, betadine, blood, etc.; they remain 98 percent bacteria-resistant after 100 washes; and, because of their bacteria resistance, along with an athletic dry-weave fiber, they prevent sweat odors.
“Our coats can be soaked in bacteria, but when you take them out of the bacteria solution, there is no bacteria remaining on the cloth. Hospitals would be wise to switch to bacteria-resistant uniforms. They may cost a bit more than uniforms made of standard materials, but they will last longer and if they prevent just one infection, that is equal to the cost of 1,000 coats,” Kinder argues. “It is the right thing to do for patients and the right thing to do for hospitals’ bottom lines.”
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