Surgical staff at Beth Israel Medical Center have one thing in common: They all dress in purple scrubs. The New York hospital recently launched a new infection control program that administrators hope will keep unnecessary visitors out of the OR suite and reduce hospital-acquired infections.
"It is really about the safety of the patient and the staff," Donald Kastenbaum, MD, the hospital’s medical director of perioperative services, told CBS News. "We decided we didn't want people coming in and out of operating suites in scrubs from other parts of the hospital, from the luncheonette across the street or actually anywhere."
The "Purple Is In" program also helps remind OR team members, including physicians and secretaries, to change out of their purple scrubs that they wore in the OR before going to the cafeteria or leaving the building.
Why purple? The hospital administration polled the nurses about their favorite color, and purple won.
While there’s little evidence that infection spreads by way of clothing, Dr. Kastenbaum hopes that the program encourages a return to the formerly strict practice of healthcare workers wearing scrubs only inside the hospital. An increasingly lax attitude towards wearing scrubs out of the hospital has bothered Dr. Kastenbaum for years. "Did they sleep in these things? Did they go on the subway with them?" he asked in an interview with ABC News. "I thought, you know what? They can't be clean."
Learn more about scrubs and OR dress codes in Outpatient Surgery Magazine’s June 2008 "Back to Basics" column, "Enforce Your OR's Dress Code."
—Kent Steinriede
