Does your pediatrician disinfect/ wash their hands before touching a baby

[Ano]

Our pediatrician is very friendly, but I notice that he doesn't wash/ disinfect his hands after touching the doorknob (and then he would touch our baby right after).

During a routine check-up, for example, after closing the door, he touched the baby directly and also saw the mouth, and now I'm worried that his hands were contaminated after the contact with the knob. (He doesn't wash his hands after either, so, unless he washes his hands in a certain room after, they could carry germs to the next patients).

Since this is a doctor's practice where ill children have certainly come to visit, I am concerned that one day diseases will be transmitted to our baby. Is it common these days that pediatrician doesn't necessarily wash/ disinfect their hands first?

Would it be super rude if next time I kindly ask him to wash/ disinfect his hands? I'm not a germaphobe, but particularly with COVID still very much around I'd like to be on the safe side, but I'm afraid that he would then tell me to look for another pediatrician.

What would you do in my place?

At home I'm not so strict about washing my hands (since many people said we have to give our babies some germs to practice their immune system, lol), but in a place like doctor's practice I still feel it's risky if one touches the doorknob etc. and then immediately after touches a baby.

Thanks very much for your insight!

Did you disinfect your hands after touching the same doorknob?

Yes all HCP’s should wash their hands before and after patient contact.

However, I wouldn’t get worked out about it.

*worked up

They may have done so before you enter the room.

Yes, paediatricians wash their hands between patients, but not opening the door is a bit mad. Do you wash your hands every single time you touch anything?

Yes, I disinfected my hands after touching the door knobs at a doctor's practice 😁. For me, this is a place most visited by children with colds etc.

I dread to think what state you will be in when your baby starts school.

My children have health issues and spend a lot of time being examined by various HCP. 99% of the time the HCP washes their hands before they touch DC - if they don't I ask and they do it without question. Save for one time when I nurse went to vax my tiny 5lb ex prem baby and hadn't washed her hands. She looked totally astonished when I asked her to wash her hands before she got up close to him. YANBU.

And yes door knobs at a doctors practice are a hive of germs! Hand sanitizer is essential and then a good scrub with soap and water when I get home.

Does he have a tub of alcohol gel in his desk , he maybe uses this between patients ?

He should have used it just before touching the baby because his keyboard is also bound to be filthy. Before a patient physical exam you take a an anti bac pump. It's basic.

It always confuses me how people who are so pernickerty actually managed to get pregnant in the first place. With yunno, bodily fluids mingling

I'm certain he didn't disinfect his hands. The dispenser is near the door and it was not used. Next time I'd like to hand him a small bottle of hand gel when he'd sit before my baby but before he touched him. I'm just not sure how he would take it 😆.

Well, schools are different. When I was in public room, I didn't always disinfect my hands either. But, like I've emphasized, this is the place where sick children would come.

Well he shouldn't be alcohol gel isn't good enough

Better class of germs in schools, eh?

Sick children are not found in schools, you say?

@JudithHarper Seems I have to break this down to you 😅. Sure there are sick children in school, but not all children there are sick, whereas the majority of children going to the pediatrician (except for those who go for routine check-ups or vaccines) ARE sick. Common sense will tell you to take more precautions in such places.

@ellyoctober If your spouse is healthy, the sperm would not give you any illness, whereas germs at doctor's practice might. 😉

As an HCP I always wash my hands AFTER I have dealt with a patient. My hands are then clean for the next patient. But the patient would not necessarily see me washing my hands before seeing them. As for door handles - I can’t get excited about them.

Well, schools are different.

Indeed. It’s much less meticulously cleaned than a medical practice and filled with way more children - who think nothing of wiping their noses with their fingers and don’t always remember to wash their hands…

We've never had to see a paediatrician but our GPs and nurses at the medical centre always wash their hands in front of us after closing the door. I think it works well to reassure patients that they really are on top of hand hygiene and that assumptions aren't made just because they're a HCP.

Precautions in certain situations are OK but you seem a little obsessive to me.

Sure there are sick children in school, but not all children there are sick, whereas the majority of children going to the pediatrician (except for those who go for routine check-ups or vaccines) ARE sick.

Not overwhelmingly with contagious illnesses. Some are for sure - you might get the odd chicken pox or hand foot and mouth case that requires a GP diagnosis (although many don’t go to the GP for this) but who tries to get an appointment or manages to get an appointment with a GP because their child has a cold or sickness bug? The receptionist will most likely tell you ‘computer says no.’
Not sure I’ve ever taken mine to the GP with anything contagious. Recent visits there (so in the last year or so) have been for eczema, hearing issues and a rabbit bite that required an additional tetanus jab…

LOL your kid is far more likely to get ill from spending a day at nursery than they are from a trip to the doctors.

It sounds like you're in the US? For some reason they're not as strict as the UK on this. In the NHS every HCP should use alcohol gel before and after touching a patient and if they don't and are audited they would fail.

@RoomOfRequirement I'm in the continent. I wish they are stricter, lol.