Have you ever found yourself walking down the street or on the train during the morning commute and next to you is someone wearing a classic pair of hospital scrubs? What you’re seeing may be a bit more than just someone on their way to or from work – you may be looking at someone exposing everyone around them to danger, depending on the situation.
According to a recent report out of Tampa Bay, Florida, many local hospitals in the area were found to either have poor enforcement or no enforcement whatsoever regarding how often healthcare professionals need to clean their scrubs, change their scrubs and whether they’re allowed to be worn in the first place outside of the hospital environment.
The Dangers of Wearing Scrubs in Public
When it comes to things like germ and pathogen transfer, scrubs in public represent something of a two way street. In certain situations, a person who wears a pair of scrubs in an operating room or other emergency room environment could take pathogens from that location out into the world with them if they wear their scrubs when they leave the building. While it is unlikely that a doctor would go fresh from the operating room down the street to lunch without changing, it is still a very real concern.
However, it is not the biggest issue that this situation poses. A person who is allowed to wear their scrubs out in public could potentially bring outside contaminants INTO a highly sensitive medical environment, thus posing a risk to patients, other medical professionals and more. This is a large part of the reason why it is recommended that hospitals and other healthcare facilities institute a policy regarding where scrubs should and should not be worn and how often they need to be cleaned moving forward.
The Benefits of a Scrub Dispenser
ScrubTrak, a scrub dispenser from Intelligent Dispensing Solutions, is a piece of equipment that is designed to help relieve exactly these types of problems in the most innovative ways possible. Scrubs are dispensed from a vending machine, similar to the way you might pick up a candy bar or a cold snack on your lunch break. Not only can healthcare professionals keep a clean pair of scrubs within arm’s reach at all times, but the machine itself is also tied directly to both the healthcare facility’s inventory and to a user ID and other identifying account information. Administrators can keep track of how scrubs are being used, how long they’re being used and more – all from one innovative solution.
Wearing scrubs out in public could pose a danger to everyone who comes into contact with such a person, which is why innovative solutions like the medical scrub dispenser are so important in the first place. They’re using the latest that technology has to offer to make the world a safer, healthier place for everyone involved.
