“Doctors – Wash Thy Hands!

“Doctors – wash thy hands!” This is Dr. Steven Andrew Davis, Speaking of Health. Reportedly, it took some doing – in the late 19^th century – for Dr. Oliver Wendall Holmes and others to “sell” the germ theory to doctors. At first not recognizing the value of washing their hands, physicians have since championed handwashing as “standard of care.” Simply put, hand-washing has been called “the single most important preventative of infection and contamination” -- also, the “least expensive to implement.”

There is, today, even an official clinical guideline for “hand hygiene in health-care setting” published by the Centers for Disease Control. According to GE’s Medical Protective unit, “the new Guideline includes recent developments in the field, a review of scientific data…and methods to improve hand hygiene practices in health care (settings), including (doctors) and dentists’ offices.”

“OK, OK”, you say, “I’m sold on hand-washing, but is plain old soap and water all I need?” According to the Healthcare Infection Control Advisory Committee, visibly dirty hands – again, in a medical setting – should be washed with soap and water. Even hands that are not visibly dirty should be decontaminated with an alcohol-based hand rub (or soap and water) before putting on surgical gloves and certainly after contact with body fluids or wound dressings.

For a copy of this script and the web address of the government’s “Guideline of Hand Hygiene in Health-Care settings” got to our web site, www.speakingof health.com. Speaking of Health, I’m Dr. Steven Andrew Davis for CBS News.

Protector. Vol. 3. Winter 2004. GE Commercial Insurance Medical Protective.

“The Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings” can be found at: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwe/PDF/rr/rr5116.pdf