Freakonomics: How Often Do MDs Really Wash Their Hands?

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/11/04/SuperFreakonomics_with_Steven_Levitt_and_Stephen_Du...

SuperFreakonomics authors Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt reveal disturbing statistics on how often hospital doctors actually wash their hands. Levitt discusses how one hospital successfully addressed the issue by growing petri dish cultures from some particularly grimy hands.

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With Freakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner revealed the good, bad, ugly and super freaky of the world around us.

The freakquel is here. Back with more than pop-culture trivia, Inforum's next 21st Century Visionary Award recipients are ready to revolutionize our understanding of causality in an incredibly interconnected world. - Commonwealth Club of California

Stephen J. Dubner is an award-winning author and journalist who lives in New York City. He is the co-author, with Steven D. Levitt, of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. He is also the author of Turbulent Souls: A Catholic Son's Return to His Jewish Family (1998), Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper (2003), and a children's book, The Boy With Two Belly Buttons (2007).

Steve Levitt is the William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, where he directs the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory.

Levitt received his BA from Harvard University in 1989 and his PhD from MIT in 1994. He has taught at Chicago since 1997. In 2004, Levitt was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded to the most influential economist under the age of 40. In 2006, he was named one of Time magazine's "100 People Who Shape Our World."

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• hospitals
• doctors
• medicine
• medical
• staff
• nurses
• antiseptic
• germs
• bacteria
• infections
• disease
• spread
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• economics
• behavior
• behavioral
• psychology
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[TILLEYJS]

This video is not very shocking. If healthcare personnel washed their hands the proper way, they would have to call off work several days a year due to bleeding, dry hands. Not matter how much moisturizer you put in soap, it will dry your skin out. I will not speak of alcohol sanitizer. Thus making you more susceptible to infection due to cracking of skin. No healthcare worker properly washing their hands and I challenge anyone to say otherwise for said reasons above.

[ncfwhitetigress]

who the hell seriously runs to the doctor every time they get a cold? i sure as fuck don't.

[birdmanmattyadam92]

Economists are so badass. So glad thats what Im doing in univeristy.

[AWonderVenus]

@TILLEYJS: I work at a hospital, interact with 40-50 pts a day and I follow handwashing to the T. The 3M Avagard D has 61% alcohol, is effective against MRSA and contains moisturizers. Every 10-15 times I use the Avagard (often less) I also wash my hands and use a pump of the moisturizers we have at every single sink. My hands never dry up, never crack and I could be a hand model. Your attitude is not only shocking, it's flippant, utterly self excusing and dangerous. Here's hoping you get fired.

[edinvestor1]

A recent study of hospitals that have changed their culture to increase hand washing and better general attention to cleanliness had huge drops in hospital caused infections.

[duck24x]

Funny - I performed a hand-washing experiment in a microbiology laboratory at my local college. In spite of my lab teacher's repeated dogma that hand-washing is the #1 way to prevent the spread of microorganisms, the result of my hand-washing experiment showed otherwise: some levels of microbes went down, some stayed the same, and some went UP after handwashing!

[luvlots1]

everyone gasped when he said 9 percent

[stealthswimmer]

Maybe it was just that hospital in Australia, lol. Dunno, but my dad used to work at a hospital and while he wasn't a doctor, he did have to help some a few times and every time he did, he'd have to wash his hands before and after. Of course, i hear that a lotta nurses don't do that good of a job sometimes.

Personally, i think at least part of it is due to the medical guild restricting the number of medical personnel allowed into the industry and thus restricting competition.

[LokiClock]

If you dry your hands properly after washing it's not so much of a problem. The top layer of skin might die, but unless you have really dry skin it's not going to be that bad.

[TILLEYJS]

I was only trying to make a point, but I appreciate your point :)

[orcusabre]

@TILLEYJS Antibiotics are ONLY used to fight bacterial infections. Colds are usually caused by rhinoviruses which aren't bacteria. You've got the right idea though.