The Deathoscope
I always laugh when a read those studies showing a doctor’s tie or jacket needs to be removed due to bacteria contamination. Why? Because I know that those things hardly every touch the patient Only two things touch the patient. One is our hands and for years we have ben lectured about washing them or using antibacterial lotion afterwards. We are finally getting that. The other, surprise, is our stethoscope. We use it on EVERY patient and no one talks about it. I use an alcohol pad on mine but I am sure we could be doing even more. I mean we go from patent to patient spreading the germs from the flu patient in room 6 right to the next lady’s back in room 7. Well, it turns out I was right. This is an issue. A recent study showed that “stethoscopes tend to be more contaminated than the palms of physicians’ hands”. How did we miss that?
True but I disagree about ties. For funerals, weddings, black tie affairs and job interviews. I envied the surgeons who live in scrubs. I worked with a plastic surgeon as a student who never scrubbed. I never asked but likely developed an allergy. Was very fastidious about gloves though. I didn’t see a single infection while on his service. This sounds crazy but I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for a couple of months.
Last month I had to do a handwashing/antibacterial gel observation in the Perioperative areas. I found that staff from Pre-Op through PACU were mostly diligent in their hand washing between patients. What I was shocked to observe was that 99.9% of the Anesthesia staff (MD’s, CRNA’s) went from Pre-Op to OR to PACU and never washed their hands. NEVER. Yes, they used gloves during the procedure to protect themselves but that was it. It was an eye opener.
Doc:
Duh !! cuz you weren’t looking for it ! seems pretty obvious in hindsight. what else r u touching a patient with besides ur hands during an examination ???? now u just have to convince docs to clean the deathoscope in between patients (or patients to ask the docs if they have done it). good luck with that. selling the idea of hand cleansing between patients has been hard enough.