When you go to see the doctor, sometimes the nurse will have you change into disposable exam wear. This type of clothing is designed to make it easier for the doctor to do their job without having to worry about their clothing. On the job, a doctor could face many potential dangers involving substances, chemicals, and bodily fluids. Thus, they need to wear clothing that protects them from harm while also ensuring they can perform their job effectively.
Because it is most important that a doctor be able to do the job that is required of them when you visit them, it is thus important that their clothing not get in the way. Similarly, it is important that they should not have to worry about whether or not they get dirty and soil their garments. After all, the only concern that should have during an appointment is your comfort and well-being. This is why doctors use disposable exam wear.
Disposable exam wear can refer to many different garments. You can find them in shorts and tee shirts or in longer drapery-type garments. You can find them in robes or in long, 2-piece scrub-type garments. They are often made of durable spunbond, meltblown, or laminate nonwoven material, basically means that they do not retain liquids. This is very important in the examination room, where a doctor can be exposed to potentially harmful bodily fluids of a patient who is concerned about a viral or bacterial infection. A latex-free, elastic waistband, though, ensures a comfortable yet secure fit.
Disposable exam wear is an important component to the success of a hospital not just because of how they are used but because they are thrown away and not washed. Laundry services can be expensive. Even in a hospital, where the laundry is performed in house, it can be very expensive to have to wash all of the gowns and scrubs that are used every single day. Any given doctor on any given day could go through several sets of garments because there is a great risk of cross-contamination between patients. Obviously this would result in having to wash hundreds of loads of laundry, which could prove to be quite costly. To cut down on these costs, many hospitals invest in disposable garments of many kinds, which is a bit of a misnomer because they are not usually simply discarded in the trash, but using a much more sanitary method.