Don't Get Sick at the Doctor's Office

Heading into wintertime, through March, we're likely to encounter seasonal flu, cold, and GI illnesses spread or transmitted by contaminated objects, including our own unwashed hands. And while an infection (your own or a family member's) may send you to a doctor's office, when you get there, the waiting rooms, the treatment rooms, and even the doctors and their instruments, can be carrying germs. "It's the same kind of things you could pick up in any general public area. You're talking a lot about respiratory illness, especially if you're not following good precautionary measures like hand washing," says Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology spokeswoman Pat Rosenbaum, RN, CIC. "These things are all around us, particularly in places in highly populated areas like waiting rooms, buses, and trains. We cannot keep everything clean, but what we can do is keep our hands clean." First, know when it's best to stay home. For relatively mild problems, a call to your doctor to discuss symptoms might allow you to avoid trudging into a doctor's office that's full of hacking coughs and germ-spraying sneezes. Depending on the severity of your illness, the office may recommend that you stay home to get better, or call in a prescription without an office visit—especially if there's a serious flu outbreak going on. During peak flu time, your healthcare providers may arrange for patients with flu symptoms to go straight to a treatment room to avoiding spreading germs to people in the waiting room. Know when to wash and disinfect. An average adult can touch 30 objects within a minute, including germ-harboring, high-touch surfaces like light switches, doorknobs, phones, and remote controls. At home, it's a good idea to keep these areas clean, but in the doctor's office, make sure you wash your hands with warm, soapy water for at least 20 seconds, or use hand sanitizer, after you come in contact with these surfaces, and before touching your face. "The most important thing to remember for children, adults—anyone—it's the touching something and bringing your hand back to your face, like rubbing your eyes or face, or putting your hands in your mouth," says Rosenbaum. "The less you touch the better, but don't always feel you can't touch anything. As long as you clean your hands before your touch your face, you're doing a good deed in preventing flu transmission."