Rubber Gloves: “Born” – and Now Banished – At Johns Hopkins – 01/14/2008.
William Stewart Halsted, The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s first surgeon in chief, is widely credited as the first to develop and introduce rubber surgical gloves in the United States. That was in 1894, five years after the institution opened.
Now, in an effort to make medical care safer for patients and health care workers, The Johns Hopkins Hospital has become the first major medical institution to become “latex safe” by ending all use of latex gloves and almost all medical latex products.
“Latex hospital gloves were invented here, so it’s only fitting that Johns Hopkins takes the initiative to promoting alternatives,” says Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist Robert H. Brown, M.D., M.P.H., the chair of the John Hopkins Hospital Latex Task Force and one of many Hopkins faculty and staff members who have contributed to making the hospital latex-safe.
Latex surgical gloves
Robert Brown and Julie Frieschlag talk about the transition to latex-free surgical gloves and a latex-safe environment at Johns Hopkins.
Program Notes:Robert Brown:
0:34 Issue to me
0:56 1990’s
1:15 Universal precautions
1:55 Production quicker and curing time reduced
2:32 Latex allergies
3:07 General population 1-6%
4:06 Several ways to have exposure
4:49 Skin red and raw, more protein
5:20 The more exposure the more risk
5:52 What amount is important?
6:17 First point was identifying the products
7:10 Patients need to be concerned
7:53 In the hospital
8:00 Julie Frieschlag describes the effort at Johns Hopkins
9:15 Now what are we using?
9:50 More expensive
10:00 Just as comfortable
11:09 Other latex products
11:24 Patient awareness
12:06 End