DR. BOBS DAILY: NOTE TO NURSE: DONT TOUCH THE PATIENTS WHEN YOU CHECK THEM OUT Whenever I see a particularly contagious patient in the office, I always tell my nurse to give the room a good cleaning when she checks them out after the visit. So, I saw a kid with scabies the other day. This usually makes ME feel itchy as soon as I see it. This is one of the few occasions in the office where Ill put on gloves to examine a patient. Double wash my hands afterward. Disinfect my hands with sanitizer. The works. As I handed the chart to my nurse to check the patient out, I gave her the usual clean the room really well instruction. Then I added, just for fun, And you might not want to touch the patient either. Then I walked away, smiling at the confused look on her face. Then I heard her say, Oh! as she opened the chart and looked at my diagnosis. Wonder how many times she washed her hands after checking out the patient and cleaning the room. God bless nurses! I could have some fun with this again - tell her the same thing, but NOT write the diagnosis in the chart and leave her wondering. Scabies, by the way, is pretty nasty and extremely itchy. But its rarely contagious through casual contact. You usually have to have prolonged contact with someone to pass it along, such as sleeping in the same bed or lots of hugging - the critters need time to crawl from one person to the next. Or you may pick them up if sleeping where an infected person recently slept. It can, technically, be passed during casual contact, but thats pretty rare. Maybe Ill stop washing thrice after such patients. Nope - not gonna happen. Scabies are scabies, and I dont want them (again - had then once as a family when my kids were young). Dr. Bob
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 15:29:09 +0000
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