title: Attitudes regarding the safety of health care provider attire.
abstract: The majority of medical providers, nurses, and patients agree that appearance is important for patient care. However, at our institution, concerns regarding providers' white coats as fomites are expressed primarily by providers and nurses, not by patients. We provide a framework for approaching this important issue through a structured quality-improvement process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; Department of Veterans Affairs, Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, WA. Electronic address: Kanishka.Garvin@va.gov.
authors.forename: Kanishka W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Garvin
authors.affiliation: Department of General Internal Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lipira
authors.affiliation: The Mountain-Whisper-Light Statistics, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Moni
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neradilek
authors.affiliation: Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Fatima
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Paul S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Pottinger
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D050456:Fomites; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods*; D011481:Protective Clothing
keywords: Hand hygiene; Infection control; Physician attire; Quality improvement; White coat