Hey, Obama, and Doctors, and Nurses, and Other Medical Technicians, Lab Coats, Scrubs, and the Like, Should Be For Hospitals ONLY...

The NY Post points out (via Althouse, with her take on it here) that the Obama Adminstration in stage managing their doctor photo op prescribed the wearing of lab coats so that all the doctors assembled looked more doctorly rather than like a bunch of professionals in suits.

I guess they feared that in the minds of many, driven by folks like Michael Moore (another Althouse post at link) and his latest agitprop Кино, that in the minds of fellow progressives the following equation applies

SUITS=EVIL (or at the very least, Republican)

So, they encouraged the doctors in the photo to play dress up.

This brings me to one huge pet peeve of mine. The purpose of having special garb that hospital staff wear, is to minimize the possibility of cross contamination, and the original intent was that garb stayed in the hospital. The point of the lab coat is that it stays in the lab so that if some stray virus has found its way on it, the doctor in that lab coat doesn't then bring that virus with them when he or she runs off to their favorite restaurant while they grab a bite to eat. I live surrounded by hospitals and labs, and any time I'm out during lunch break hours I see a sea of scrubs and lab coats on the street and in various eating establishments. I know many hospitals have cut out laundry service, and don't issue these clothes like they used to, but that doesn't mean staff should wear these clothes out and about in public. Rather than telling people how to sneeze into the crook of their arms, maybe they should remind health professionals that they are a primary channel by which new bugs spread.

Heckuva job on preventing the potential spread of disease, buddies and budettes.

Managing Effluvia Better

A sad tale from the United Kingdom about opportunistic infections contracted at hospital.

This problem is far from unique to Britain (though their socialized medicine 'paradise' sounds far, far worse off in that regard than our 'inhumane' semi-free market health care system), in the United States, hospital acquired infections kill more people annually than better publicized diseases (and better funded in opposition) such as AIDS or breast cancer.

The solution is far simpler than a new drug cocktail or use of controversial new treatments, the solution is discipline within the medical community to follow their best practices when seeing patients (in other words, wash your damn hands upon visiting and leaving every patient), even while busy and understaffed. Vigilance by family members of patients in observing and monitoring the care their loved ones receive is one way to help stem this problem.

Don't be afraid to be an asshole, whenever a doctor or nurse visits a patient you know, guide them towards the wash basin and make sure they soap up (and it should go without saying, do the same yourself). The life or health of someone you know depends on it.