Doctor-Patient “ties”
Is there a problem with
doctor-patient “ties”? This is Dr. Steven Andrew Davis, Speaking of Health. Ah
– it’s a trick question, but one which serves a public health purpose. Ant those “ties” are not psychological,
“huggy” or “feely”; they are silk or rayon, in most cases.
The dress ties that doctors
and medical students wear came under scrutiny of one Steve Nurkin, a medical
student at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens. As reported by the New York Times, Mr. Nurkin
noticed “that the ties of male doctors often swung close to or touched the
doctor when the doctor leaned over hospital beds.” Ever-mindful of the problem of nosocomial –
or hospital-spread infections, Mr. Nurkin had bacterial cultures done on 42
ties worn by doctors. It turns out that
almost half of those ties carried germs that typically caused infections in a
hospital setting. By contrast, of the
ties worn by security guards in the hospital, only 1 in 10 carried those same
germs.
The doctors: their ties frequently dangle over patients’
beds, touching the sheets or the patients.
The security guards – they have far less contact with the patients. The solution?
Physician – “heal thyself”, or at least wear bow-ties on the job. By the way, according to the Times, Mr.
Nurkin now attends medical school in