Bacterial Contamination of Workwear

August 30, 2010 updated by: Denver Health and Hospital Authority

Physician Dress Code And Microbial Colonization Of The White Coat: Does Physician Dress Code Alter Bacterial Colonization Rate On The Clothing Of Physicians?

Governmental agencies in the United Kingdom and Scotland have recently instituted guidelines banning physicians' white coats and wearing of long-sleeved garments to decrease hospital transmission of bacteria. The purpose of this study is to compare the bacterial contamination of physicians' white coats with that of newly laundered, standardized short-sleeved uniforms after an eight-hour workday and to determine the rate at which bacterial contamination of the uniform ensues. Our hypothesis was that the physician white coat would have more bacterial contamination at the end of the work day.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Governmental agencies in the United Kingdom and Scotland have recently instituted guidelines banning physicians' white coats and wearing of long-sleeved garments to decrease nosocomial transmission of bacteria. Our goal was to compare the degree of bacterial and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus contamination of physicians' white coats with that of newly laundered, standardized short-sleeved uniforms after an eight-hour workday and to determine the rate at which bacterial contamination of the uniform ensues. 100 interns, residents, and hospitalists on an internal medicine service were randomized to wear either physician white coat or newly laundered, short-sleeved uniform. Bacterial colony counts and the frequency with which methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was found was compared in the two groups and over time. Our initial hypothesis was that physician white coats would have more bacterial contamination at the end of the work day.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

110

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Colorado
      • Denver, Colorado, United States, 80204
        • Denver Health

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Internal medicine interns, residents, and hospitalists working on acute medicine ward service.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Not willing/unable to participate in study
  • Not working a full 8 hour day in the hospital

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: White coat group
Participants continued their regular practice of wearing their physician white coat.
Experimental: Uniform group
Participants were given a clean uniform (scrubs) at the beginning of the day.
Other: Physician uniform
Participants were given a clean uniform (scrubs) on the day of the study. They wore this for approximately 8 hours.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Bacterial colony counts and the frequency with which methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was found over time
Time Frame: 8 hours
8 hours

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Denver Health and Hospital Authority

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Marisha Burden, MD, Denver Health and Housing Authority

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

April 1, 2008

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2009

Study Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 30, 2010

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 30, 2010

First Posted (Estimate)

September 1, 2010

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

September 1, 2010

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 30, 2010

Last Verified

August 1, 2010

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 07-1137

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Bacterial Contamination of Physician Attire

Clinical Trials on Physician uniform

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Israel

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

3
Subscribe