hygiene

In his book, “Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance,” Atul Gawande does a great job at explaining the three “core requirements for success in medicine.”  The three requirements are diligence, “doing right,” and ingenuity. He explains that the field of medicine can only work if a doctor or nurse follows these three requirements. 

 I feel like something that has not been discussed much, but that I thought was particularly notable was the issue of hygiene.  I was shocked to find out how much energy is spent making sure medical staff keeps up appropriate hygiene in the hospital.  With the large rate of infection in hospitals, I feel like this should be a no-brainer.  Since infection is such a huge risk factor in hospitals, one would think that the whole staff would be just as diligent about antiseptic in the main hospital floors as they are in the operating room.  I was shocked to know that this was not the case.  Yes, it is true that doctors are only human, however they are humans that the rest of us trust to take care of us when we are sick or injured, and therefore they have a responsibility to prevent infection from spreading how ever they can, even if that includes obsessively washing and sterilizing their hands.