NCT01192841

Bacterial Contamination of Workwear

Physician Dress Code And Microbial Colonization Of The White Coat: Does Physician Dress Code Alter Bacterial Colonization Rate On The Clothing Of Physicians?

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 110 (actual)
• Sponsor: Denver Health and Hospital Authority · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Governmental agencies in the United Kingdom and Scotland have recently instituted guidelines banning physicians' white coats and wearing of long-sleeved garments to decrease hospital transmission of bacteria. The purpose of this study is to compare the bacterial contamination of physicians' white coats with that of newly laundered, standardized short-sleeved uniforms after an eight-hour workday and to determine the rate at which bacterial contamination of the uniform ensues. Our hypothesis was that the physician white coat would have more bacterial contamination at the end of the work day.

Detailed description

Governmental agencies in the United Kingdom and Scotland have recently instituted guidelines banning physicians' white coats and wearing of long-sleeved garments to decrease nosocomial transmission of bacteria. Our goal was to compare the degree of bacterial and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus contamination of physicians' white coats with that of newly laundered, standardized short-sleeved uniforms after an eight-hour workday and to determine the rate at which bacterial contamination of the uniform ensues. 100 interns, residents, and hospitalists on an internal medicine service were randomized to wear either physician white coat or newly laundered, short-sleeved uniform. Bacterial colony counts and the frequency with which methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was found was compared in the two groups and over time. Our initial hypothesis was that physician white coats would have more bacterial contamination at the end of the work day.

Conditions

• Bacterial Contamination of Physician Attire

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Physician uniform	Participants were given a clean uniform (scrubs) on the day of the study. They wore this for approximately 8 hours.

Timeline

• Start date: 2008-04-01
• Primary completion: 2009-11-01
• Completion: 2009-11-01
• First posted: 2010-09-01
• Last updated: 2010-09-01

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States