Dr.Garber’s Blog

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The American Medical Association is studying a proposal that doctors discontinue the common practice of wearing lab coats. Why? Because it appears that certain types of clothing, including long sleeved lab coats, may be responsible for transmitting bacteria and other infectious microbes.

But even before the AMA’s Council on Science and Public Health announces it’s findings on the issue, doctors have begun to register their objections. A recent NY Times article quoted Dr. Richard Cohen, a clinical professor at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and an attending physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital as saying “The coat is part of what defines me, and I couldn’t function without it.” Is he kidding? This would be funny… if it were a joke! And Dr. Cohen is not alone in his thinking. He went on to say “When a patient shares intimacies with you and you examine them in a manner that no one else does, you’d better look like a physician - not a guy who works at Starbuck’s.”

Yes, Dr. Cohen, by all means. It’s so much more important to look the part than to actually take your patient’s best interest to heart. According to the Unites States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nosocomial infections, or infections contracted as a result of being in the hospital, are responsible, directly or indirectly, for more than 100,000 deaths annually! If a change of attire can prevent even a small percentage of those deaths, should there even be a discussion?

Over 150 years ago, doctors balked at Oliver Wendell Holmes’ suggestion that washing their hands could prevent a certain disease. That “no gentleman could have hands so dirty as to cause disease”  could be understood as ignorance then. But guess what? Hand washing by doctors, or rather lack thereof, is still an issue today. Perhaps what’s really needed is a change in attitude, not wardrobe!

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• The Lab Coat Is on the Hook in the Fight Against Germs (nytimes.com)