We Continue to Debate the Use of the White Coat in Inpatient Settings

Source: Boston Globe

We  continue to debate the use of the hallowed white coat in inpatient settings. Most people who know me are well aware of my opinion on the matter. 

Here is an article in the Boston Globe where both Miked Edmond and I are interviewed on bare below the elbows, something which we started at VCU Medical Center. Our monthly compliance with bare below the elbows for inpatient care is between 70-80%.

Without a mandate, we have made bare below the elbows for inpatient care normative behavior, part of our broad based, horizontal infection program which rigorously promotes infection prevention best practices and minimizes bioburden in the inanimate environment. The bare below the elbows component was highlighted in the VCU School of Medicine Magazine, 12th and Marshall.

Back to the Boston Globe article, to reproduce the closing quote by Dr. Neil Fishman, from the University of  Pennsylvania: “I’m just left scratching my head, trying to figure out why some really bright people who I respect have latched onto this issue.” 

Really?