There is little debate about the dangers in-hospital infections pose to patients. The mechanics of managing these infections have evolved greatly from the time when doctors didn’t even consider it necessary to wash their hands when moving from patient to patient. With advances in modern hygiene and medicine, health care professionals are now focusing on one of the last bastions of contagion: improperly managed scrub uniforms worn by hospital staff.
The concept of wearing scrubs has some clear virtues: they’re easy to launder and also low cost to produce, which means they can easily be disposed of when contaminated. They’re also designed to allow medical care professionals to be easily identified. However, new studies in the US and the UK have shown that these same scrubs intended to reduce transmission of disease, in fact, can pick up and carry infectious agents from room to room or patient to patient. Because nurses and doctors may believe that having only limited contact with a patient does not expose them to disease, they may not be observing the correct level of safety and cleanliness protocols.
ScrubTrak and IDS’ scrub inventory management system provides the ideal solution. Having an easy stock of clean, contagion-free scrubs available at all times to the entire healthcare community encourages medical professionals to change as soon as they have any concern about carrying pathogens. Instead of placing an undue burden on staff to purchase, launder, maintain, and keep track of clean scrubs on a constant basis, having a medical scrubs machine on site shows that the hospital or care center values its employees–and its patient’s well being!
