Docs told: Leave ties home, spare us germs

Wednesday, November 25, 2009
By CLAIRE MOSES
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Doctors at the Jersey City Medical Center are going casual.

The hospital yesterday announced a new policy prohibiting 116 residents and 200 physicians from wearing ties in order to prevent the spread of infections.

"We are enacting this policy as part of a good faith effort to prevent the spread of flu and other organisms," said Joseph Scott, president and CEO of Liberty Health, which operates the Jersey City Medical Center and the Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus.

The Jersey City Medical Center is also urging doctors who visit patients at the hospital to go tie-less.

The policy has not been implemented at Meadowlands Hospital, but it has been presented to that hospital's infections control committee, Scott said.

According to research by the American Medical Association, neckties can carry drug-resistant organisms and other harmful bacteria.

Because doctors are often leaning over to examine patients, ties often touch the patients. And unlike shirts, pants and other clothing, ties are seldom washed.

A 2004 study by the New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens concluded that nearly half of the bacteria carried in doctors' ties could cause serious illnesses, including pneumonia.

Kerry McKean Kelly, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Hospital Association, said the organization is not aware of any other hospital in New Jersey implementing the new dress code.

"I'm all for it," said Nathaniel Holmes, the Medical Center's vice president and chairman of the Department of Surgery. "Now I can wear a turtle neck."