Dirtiest Places in a Hospital Top 10 List

What's the dirtiest place in the hospital you ask?   Is it the GI lab with their colonoscopy equipment and their C. diff?  Is it the operating room with their bowel obstructions, bloody gunshot wound victims, total colectomies and their spurting arteries?   How about the bronchosopy lab with all that MRSA colonization and gobs of spit.  The cath lab?  The radiology area?  The dialysis unit?  How about the cafeteria?  Restaurants have been known to get pretty messy bend the scenes.  Is the cafeteria the dirtiest place in the hospital?  How about the patient's room with all their friends and family?  Then there is the nurses station and the doctor's lounge and the laboratory break room.  Are they the dirtiest places in the hospital?

This question was presented to the readers of The Happy Hospitalist Blog Facebook page.  The collective responses contain the obvious collection of door knobs, shoes, keyboards and other commonly assumed dirty places in the hospital.  But some responses were unexpected.  Below is a list from readers like yourself of the dirtiest places in the hospital, with a handpicked Top 10 List for your reading enjoyment.  The next time you go to a hospital keep this list in mind and navigate carefully through these dirtiest places in a hospital.  Feel free to add to this list in the comments section below and help educate other readers on how to stay safe in the hospital.

TOP TEN DIRTIEST PLACES IN THE HOSPITAL

1. The letter J on the computer keyboard right after it's used by a gastroenterologist.
2. The 47 year old son that lived with his mother from room 110.
3. The chicken nugget that has been photographed in the same place now going on two years.
4. The leftovers in the back right corner of the nurse break room fridge that's been there for 6 weeks and counting.
5. Homeless patient clothes.
6. The curtains in Room 1.
7. Used speculum collection after a night shift in the ER.
8. The resident's white coat.
9. That one doctor.  Everyday.
10. The med student stethoscope, because they are the only ones that actually use it.

FACEBOOK RESPONSES

• Elevator buttons.
• Pulse oximeter.
• The chicken nugget that has been photographed in the same place now going on two years.
• The curtains that are around the beds. How many times do they get splattered on and are not changed?
• The nasty phones us nurses carry so we can't get any patient care done! There is no way we remember to clean them after each room we go in!
• Non disposable EKG leads in the ICU/ED.  They are always nasty and in need of a cavi-wipe soak!
• Door knob to the dirty utility room.
• The staff kitchen. No one cleans up after themselves. Frustrating!
• Computer key pad or patient bed/tv controller.
• Public phone in ER hall.
• Tube system tubes.
• I once cultured the bottom of my nursing shoes. There were things growing my microbiology teacher couldn't identify.
• ID badges.
• The mattresses! Bodily fluids just soak right in if your draw sheet wasn't placed correctly.
• Bathroom door handles.
• What is the staff refrigerator for $800 Alex.
• Charts! No contest.
• The hand rails.
• The spouts on the soda machines.... One time my coworker cleaned them and they were full of mold! Gross!!!
• The water cooler - folks just stick their bottles right up and over the faucet.
• Floor! You know how many times a day or week it gets pooped or peed on?
• Bottom of the OR tables.
• The computer KEYBOARDS definitely!
• The nurses lounge!
• Ice machine!
• The keyboard at any nurses station!
• The nurses' lounge, hands down!
• Waiting room bathroom in an inner city hospital.
• Everything!  Especially the floor. I'm pretty sure the dirt just gets pushed around instead of cleaned!
• Doctors ties or jackets (white coats).
• The telephones.
• Used speculum collection after a night shift in the ER.
• The curtains in room 1.
• Underneath the trauma beds. I've never seen the underside get cleaned. We have much blood loss Captain Kirk.
• IV poles.
• The letter J on the computer keyboard right after it's used by a gastroenterologist.
• Patient nutrition room ice machines.
• Any patient room. Even after being "cleaned".
• The leftovers in the back right corner of the nurse break room fridge that's been there for 6 weeks and counting.
• Keyboards, telephones and desk tops.
• Handle on the exam lights.
• That nasty carpet in the halls.
• The resident's white coat.
• Floors or the bottom of shoes!
• Physician neckties and nurse badge lanyards.
• Front entrance where one pushes or pulls the door.
• Nursing lounge fridge vs the big bins of used dirty sheets waiting for wash.
• Behind the computer screens.
• Ice machine, hands down. Google it and gag when you hear what is found.
• Door handles to the public bathrooms.  I always use a paper towel to open them.
• My shoes.
• Light switches in patient rooms!
• The pump on the hand sanitizers, phones, keyboards/mice, and patient charts!
• Desk doctors computers or mouse. ER patient gurney rails.
• The telephones carried by any patient caregiver. Hands down.
• The call button.
• TV remotes.
• Homeless patient clothes.
• Door knobs, hand rails, soap dispensers, toilet handles, telephones, chairs, elevator buttons, my job has given me germophobia.
• Call light/television controls in room.
• Respiratory break room at my hospital!
• The med student stethoscope, because they are the only ones that actually use it.
• Family nutrition room.
• The rectal tubes seems like an obvious winner.
• The counter in the doctors lounge where they keep the donuts.
• That one doctor.
• Soiled/dirty equip room.
• The 47 year old son that lived with his mother from room 110.
• Trach patient's room.
• Public water fountains are reportedly dirtier than public toilets.
• The carpets in waiting rooms- they never get cleaned and people let their kids play and crawl all over them!
• Little button on the water fountain.
• Breakroom fridge door handle.
• Doctors Lounge Floor
• Guest coffee makers in the ED waiting area.

"What if I told you the staff fridge is the dirtiest place in a hospital."

This post is for entertainment purposes only and likely contains humor only understood by those in a health care profession. Read at your own risk.

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