Tips for Selecting Medical Clothing and Apparels
Medical textiles will probably be the field of new millennium. Due to constant improvements and innovations in both medical procedures and textile technology the annual growth of medical textile products during the last two decades occurred at a compound annual rate of 10 – 15 %.
Textiles in the health service are also designated as medicine or clinical textiles.
Medical Apparels need to be:
Medical clothing and apparel can benefit healthcare workers, patients, and medical facilities in many ways, including:
- Professionalism: Uniforms can help healthcare workers identify themselves as hospital staff and display professionalism.
- Comfort: High-quality medical uniforms can make medical staff more comfortable.
- Patient protection: Medical uniforms can protect patients from unexpected exposures to microorganisms or pathogens.
- Customer convenience: Uniforms can help customers identify staff and avoid confusion.
- Ease of movement: Loose-fitting scrubs are designed to allow for ease of movement, which is important for medical tasks.
Here are some other things to consider when choosing medical clothing and apparel:
- Affordability
It’s possible to find affordable medical scrubs that are still high quality.
- Color retention
Darker colors are more resistant to fading, and polyester blends can tolerate higher-temperature laundering.
- Flame resistance
Flame-resistant finishes can increase the color retention properties of fabric.
Keep the following points in mind for Medical Apparels:
- There are a combination of fabric characteristics are associated with the barrier properties of the surgical gown fabrics.
- Repellency and pore size contribute to gown performance.
- Laundering reduces the ability of the fabric to prevent the transmission of bacteria through the fabrics.
- However, fabric with greater thickness as in case of gowns with a second fabric layer, retains greatest degree of repellency with no transmission of bacteria after laundering.
- Higher repellency ratings generally corresponded with higher barrier properties.Thus, best practices for selecting medical gowns can be summarized as follows:▪Materials used in surgical gowns should be safe, meet identified needs and promote the safety of patients and HCWs.▪The selection of gown – both single-use and reusable – should be based on criteria specific to the products’ function and use.
▪Materials used for surgical gowns should be resistant to penetration by blood and other body fluids, particulates and microorganisms.
▪Surgical gowns should be 100% lint free, anti-static (optional), have an acceptable quality level and be resistant to tears, punctures and abrasions.
▪Materials used for surgical gowns should be appropriate to the methods of sterilization, and reusable surgical products’ barrier properties must be monitored after repeated processing.
▪Surgical gowns should be comfortable and contribute to maintaining the wearer’s desired body temperature
- To summarize, keep the comfort of the technical medical teams including the doctors, medical and para-medical staff in mind. Understand their overall activities and need to wear the medical apparels.