Scrubs in ER

Jami, I have to wonder about that also? Our hospital infectious control claims, we need to wear lab coats when we leave the ER, because we are a infectious risk. yet it is ok to wear our scrubs home, in our car, throw them in our laundry basket, and wash them in our washer, where the remains are pumped into our septic field? Hmmmm. wonders if they mae anti-bacterial laundry detergent.......ahhhhhh...second thoughts NOT! I imagine that anti-bacterial laundry detergent would just kill off all the good active bacteria in the septic field. No answer here?

Rick

Bio-hazard, maybe, but what about the floor nurses that wear uniforms and take them home every day. I don't see how OSHA could limit scrubs to in house cleaning and turn around and let a nurse from post-op, chemo unit etc. go home. Of course, no one has ever accused OSHA of applying common sense. LOL

I think it was in 1987 or '88 that the CDC mandated that hospitals wash the contaminated
uniforms of hospital workers. So if a nurse or other patient care worker got clothing contaminated with body fluids, the clothing was not to leave the hospital until it had been laundered. Many hospitals began to furnish scrubs to those working in high risk areas because of the CDC recommendations to do so, and because of the expected expense of laundering various uniforms. I even started to keep a pair of work shoes at the hospital. Never took them home.
As far as I know, the CDC and OSHA still re-
quire contaminated clothing to be laundered by the hospital. Gary