Don't Get Sick at the Doctor's Office

Heading into wintertime, through March, we're likely to encounter seasonal flu, cold, and GI illnesses spread or transmitted by contaminated objects, including our own unwashed hands. And while an infection (your own or a family member's) may send you to a doctor's office, when you get there, the waiting rooms, the treatment rooms, and even the doctors and their instruments, can be carrying germs.

"It's the same kind of things you could pick up in any general public area. You're talking a lot about respiratory illness, especially if you're not following good precautionary measures like hand washing," says Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology spokeswoman Pat Rosenbaum, RN, CIC. "These things are all around us, particularly in places in highly populated areas like waiting rooms, buses, and trains. We cannot keep everything clean, but what we can do is keep our hands clean."

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Here are simple strategies you can adopt to prevent the spread of disease at the doctor's office:

First, know when it's best to stay home.
For relatively mild problems, a call to your doctor to discuss symptoms might allow you to avoid trudging into a doctor's office that's full of hacking coughs and germ-spraying sneezes. Depending on the severity of your illness, the office may recommend that you stay home to get better, or call in a prescription without an office visit—especially if there's a serious flu outbreak going on. During peak flu time, your healthcare providers may arrange for patients with flu symptoms to go straight to a treatment room to avoiding spreading germs to people in the waiting room.

Know when to wash and disinfect.
An average adult can touch 30 objects within a minute, including germ-harboring, high-touch surfaces like light switches, doorknobs, phones, and remote controls. At home, it's a good idea to keep these areas clean, but in the doctor's office, make sure you wash your hands with warm, soapy water for at least 20 seconds, or use hand sanitizer, after you come in contact with these surfaces, and before touching your face.

"The most important thing to remember for children, adults—anyone—it's the touching something and bringing your hand back to your face, like rubbing your eyes or face, or putting your hands in your mouth," says Rosenbaum. "The less you touch the better, but don't always feel you can't touch anything. As long as you clean your hands before your touch your face, you're doing a good deed in preventing flu transmission."

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Require a lot of elbow room.
If you're stuck in the waiting room, try to keep to keep at least two chairs in between you and someone coughing and sneezing. Flu droplets tend to travel just three feet before they drop to the floor, so keeping your distance from someone with respiratory symptoms could reduce your chances of picking up their bug.

Consider bringing your own entertainment.
This may seem a bit extreme, but if there is an outbreak of a particular contagious illness, such as H1N1 or even seasonal flu, in your community you could go as far as bringing your own books and magazines into the waiting room in the name of preventing flu. If you're taking a child to the doctor's office during peak flu or cold season in your area, you can also pack his or her own toys, crayons, or coloring books to keep the child entertained without risking exposure to more germs.

Bring your own cleaner.
Always go to the doctor's office armed with tissues and alcohol-based hand sanitizers with at least 60 percent alcohol content (avoid any soap or sanitizer containing the pesticide triclosan), and suggest to the receptionist that the office should provide these germ-containing and -killing measures.

Say '"howdy" with a nod.
Many docs like to say hello with a handshake when they enter a room, but don't feel rude if you decline. "Just say, I'd love to shake your hand, but I'm avoiding respiratory illnesses," suggests Rosenbaum. Or say you've been reading guidance on preventing germ transmission, and would rather not touch.

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Request a hand washing.
If you're going to extremes to wash your hands to prevent the spread of illness, you're going to want everyone touching you at the doctor's office to do the same. Politely ask nurses and doctors to wash their hands or sanitize them with gel in front of you.

Ask the doc to clean instruments, too.
Different organisms live for different lengths of time in the environment. "Most like a nice, moist, warm environment, but some live in a dry environment," explains Rosenbaum. For instance, researchers have found that MRSA, a hard-to-kill bacterial infection, can live on doctors' ties or even their stethoscopes for a short period of time. For added protection, you can ask a nurse or doctor if the equipment has been wiped down with alcohol before he or she checks your heartbeat.

Eat well.
A diet of french fries and soda isn't going to do much for your immune system, so pay particular attention to eating whole grains, fruits, and vegetables to keep your body strong during this flu season.

Boost your immunity and disease-proof your body!