More Hand-washing Headlines

After I wrote my "Typhoid Mary" post the other day, I took a look at my hospital's Web site, and right there front and center on the homepage was this:

H1N1 UPDATE

Our goal during the flu pandemic is to keep you and your family safe and healthy

And then links to pages on visitor restrictions and tips on how to keep healthy. 

Okaaay. And how about a hand-washing class for the staff? Followed by a class on handling patients who are in isolation? 

Then yesterday, a friend sent me the link to this story in The New York TImes magazine: 

Making Health Care Better

And a couple of my earlier posts on hand-washing in medical settings:

Yuck! Wash Those Hands!

Yuck! Wash Those Hands, Take 2

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@ Jeanne Sather 2009.

Comments

[Amorette]

Last month at the pulmonologist's, I heard his assistant coughing and hacking in the hallway. She immediately entered my room (no handwashing beforehand, used the doorknob, no handwashing afterward), ripped open the bag of mouthpieces for my breathing treatment, picked them up with the mouth-part in her hand, and handed them to me.

I tried to make a joke of wiping them off, but I was horrified.

[Helen]

I recall that during my radiotherapy treatment, the radiographers noticed a circular skin lesion on my chest. Immediately, they donned gloves, disposable aprons and muttered about possible ringworm! This barrier approach lasted a few days, making me feel I should ring a bell and announce my presence in the unit with plague cries of "Unclean! Unclean!" My general practitioner snorted that it was only dermatitis, treated it with the correct cream and of course the little round mess disappeared. It was only then that the cautious aprons and gloves vanished. Not a nice experience, but reassuring in a funny sort of way...