A study regarding Spanish-speaking parents' preference of physician attire in the pediatric emergency room.

OBJECTIVE: A study to determine Spanish-speaking parents' acceptance of the physician's attire in the pediatric emergency department. HYPOTHESIS: The attire of the physicians does not matter for the parents. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The sample size was 450. An anonymous patient survey with no identifiers was used. The sample questionnaire was enclosed, and the parents were asked to answer the questionnaire. The results were interesting; patients preferred physicians who wear hospital scrubs (410/450 or 91%) and short hair (430/450 = 96%). They preferred physicians wearing sneakers (430/450 = 96%) compared with dress shoes, and male physicians with moustaches/beards and wearing glasses (450/450 = 100%). Parents did not like women physicians wearing makeup and high heels. CONCLUSIONS: Parents prefer physicians wearing hospital scrubs and sneakers and having short hair. This could indicate that parents do not prefer formal attire in the pediatric emergency room (ER). Also, a gender difference was noticed. Parents do not prefer women physicians with high heels and make up. But, they tolerate male physicians with moustaches/beards. This could be related to the fact that most of the parent questionnaires were answered by Spanish women. Results are interesting and useful in addressing the question of physicians' attire in the pediatric ER in the context of a predominantly Spanish speaking population.

In-use study of potential bacterial contamination of ophthalmic moxifloxacin.

PURPOSE: To determine the contamination rate of topical moxifloxacin 0.5% (Vigamox) after clinical use for preoperative and postoperative prophylaxis for cataract surgery. SETTING: Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Miami, Florida, USA. METHODS: A total of 61 bottles of moxifloxacin were collected in a 2-month time period after use preoperatively by patients (n = 21, mean 2.2 days), postoperatively by patients (n = 16, mean 7.2 days), or by nurses in the operating room (n = 24). For each bottle, cultures of the cap, tip, external thread, and solution were inoculated onto chocolate agar plates and incubated at 35 degrees for 7 days. A total of 13 bottles of benzalkonium chloride (BAC)-preserved gatifloxacin ophthalmic solution (Zymar) were also cultured in a similar manner for comparison. RESULTS: No organisms were found by cultures of the cap, tip, or solution from any bottle in the study. One colony of coagulase-negative Staphylococcus was recovered from the thread of 1 Vigamox bottle. This bottle had negative cultures from its cap, tip, and solution. CONCLUSIONS: The only contaminant found in this study was cultured from the bottle thread. This is a location with a high rate of skin contact and minimal solution contact. The remaining cultures from this bottle were negative, showing the solution's ability to self-preserve. These data demonstrate that BAC-free Vigamox can be treated no differently than BAC-preserved solutions by patients and medical staff, without concern for solution contamination.