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DO NOT TOUCH elevator buttons at COG Headquarters with your bare skin

 
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Post DO NOT TOUCH elevator buttons at COG Headquarters with your bare skin doyle
Long before any news about the Corona-virus, as someone who has spent 10 to 12 hours a day in hospital (Chaplain ministry, I did not ever touch elevator buttons. In fact, it is wise not to touch elevators buttons with your bare skin ANYWHERE.

No disrespect intended to COG Headquarters. That headline was used to draw attention to information that could help stave off infections to you and your family with the following:

ELEVATOR BUTTONS, particularly at hospitals, may be one of the most unsanitary places in a hospital. They can place you in contact with thousands of patient-visitors who have touched them. That tiny bit of finger skin touching the elevator buttons, is not the entire problem.

The bigger problem: We are told that the average person touches their face or eyes hundreds of times each day. Many viruses, including the common cold, enter the body through the eyes.

Though not usually a germaphobe at all, while in the hospital setting I'm fairly close to becoming one.

Counting the on-staff doctors, and private-practice doctors who visit their patients at our hospital, there are over 500 doctors and around 1,2000 or more nurses. All of them are treating patients with various maladies and diseases. In addition, family members by the thousands visit friends and relatives in the hospital.

As loving family members do, they hug them, kiss them, hold hands with them and then touch the elevator buttons when going home. There are no regulations requiring visitors to patient rooms, to wash their hands before leaving the room.

At one time or another, almost all of them use the elevators. So, I NEVER touch elevator buttons without some barrier between me and them. Elevator buttons are usually plastic and therefore porous.

Barriers between your skin and the buttons do not have to be fancy or complicated. No use to put on gloves unless you want to. A small piece of toilet tissue may be the best as long as you drop it in the first wastebasket after leaving the elevator. Don't then stick the tissue in your pocket and carry it around.

Maybe carry a small packet of Kleenix with you when visiting the hospital.

Use your shirttail or corner of your jacket. Pull down your shirt sleeve a bit and use that. At times, I have put my finger under a shirt button and pressed the button against the elevator button. Those items are better than nothing at all, but they are still near your body.

Even better, carry a pen and use that with the point retracted. If you have a metal casing on your cell phone, you can use the corner of the phone to touch the elevator buttons.

Those automatic hospital doors that open when you approach, are not just for convenience. They are also for infection control so you do not have to touch where thousands of others have before you.

If a door has to be opened by hand, I usually also use a shield between it and my hand. That is a good policy even if you are entering a crowded restaurant. In addition, in a hospital setting, I often use my clothed elbow to open the push-down entrance handles.

In many hospitals, there are hand-sanitizers outside each room. However, remember that all those who touched the hand-sanitizer before you, did so before their hands were sanitized. Just sayin...

AM I A TERRIFIED germophobe? Not at all, but like most of us I unconsciously touch my face or rub my eyes at times throughout the day. I've tried to be disciplined enough not to do that, but it is seemingly almost impossible. Usually I'm reminded not to right after I just did.

"Oops" is not a health plan, so I attempt to improve the odds against carrying infections home by being cautious and using a barrier when possible.

ALWAYS WASH your hands when leaving the hospital. Use your clothed elbow to open the restroom door. Use a napkin to turn on the faucet, and if you can't get a hand towel without touching a turn-down knob, use the air-blower or toilet paper to dry your hands.

Think it over. Don't go home to your family with all that invisible stuff on your hands. The Bible may not actually say "Cleanliness is next to godliness," but wisdom is definitely a Biblical theme.

Doyle
writedoyle@gmail.com
404-933-1373
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Last edited by doyle on 3/16/20 3:29 pm; edited 2 times in total
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3/2/20 2:17 pm


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Why don't you carry germ killing wipes to wipe down the buttons for everyone else. Hospitals should have someone do that.
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3/5/20 7:20 pm


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