Style and aesthetics don’t even enter the conversation when it comes to the hospital gown, a garment that only someone too sick to protest would agree to wear. “It makes you feel more naked and exposed than when you’re actually naked,” says one former patient. Another claims, “They’re put on patients to cow them and make them compliant.”
What’s obvious is that hospital gowns were designed only for medical convenience, with no thought to fashion or the dignity of the wearer. They are purposely thin to keep patients from overheating. Made of cotton so they can be sterilized by washing in boiling water. Loose and shapeless, so medical staff can check vital signs quickly and protect any sutures from rubbing. And open in the back for injections and trips to the bathroom.
This is a garment that flatters no one – and certainly not a person who is deathly ill. The hospital gown ranks No. 1 in things that need to be redesigned. We invite you to nominate others that should be added to this list.
Those were all issues we faced when confronted with the diagnosis of cancer, my sister and me. We decided something had to be done to offer anyone who had ever heard the words, “take all (some) of your clothes off and put this on” the opportunity to say, “NO…thank you, I have my own and I am wearing it”. We started a company, Spirited Sisters Inc., and designed the Original Healing Threads (http.://www.healingthreads.com). Our garments are modesty and dignified and give the already horrified person/diagnosed patient a sense of empowerment. Our hope is that the empowering feeling given by saying “NO” will encourage the wearer to question other aspects of the diagnosis and ask more questions about their treatment and to take OWNERSHIP of their illness, becoming a vocal and active participant in the process. The e-mails we receive from our customers let us know that we have accomplished what we set out to do. We wish more people knew about us so they too could find modesty, dignity, and empowerment at a time in their lives when all those attributes are needed so muc.
I am now cancer free, a 6 year 7 month survivor. After a valiant 35 month battle, my younger sister succumbed to colon cancer at the age of 44.
Add to the list: the toilet paper role. It's nifty that you never run out but why don't other formats work? It's like being stuck having to use Windows on a computer, it works but it's not very pleasing. And god knows it's not aesthetically pleasing enough to leave out in public view. When you build a multi million dollar home do you just put in a regular toilet paper role? That seems a little utilitarian for comfort and luxury doesn't it?
Now that we should all be aware of the damage plastic refuse is doing to our environment (see CNN Garbage Island item in this review) could someone come up with a hand soap solution that is as nifty as the plastic bottle and pump but completely eco-friendly as well as more convenient than an old-fashioned bar of soap? Or maybe we should drag the bar of soap out of the graveyard and represent it as the better product.
By the way when I was in labour I wore my husband's cotton shirt because I wanted to have his 'smell' next to me, maybe there is an opportunity to have hospital gowns impregnated with natural and sympathetic smells such as Tuberose or Sandalwood….
I'm not sure what's inconvenient with bar soap. It's totally sustainable, and does not need any wasteful packaging when sold in big bars where you just lop off a section. If you have to take it when you travel, put it in a soap box that can last a lifetime. I use home-made goat milk soap scented with real lavender, partially covered with a paper wrap, sold in my local drugstore. Perfect.
ECT Solutions and American Dawn Inc. To Launch The Next Generation Patient Gown for the 21st Century
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (June 18-21, 2009) – ECT Solutions and American Dawn Inc. (ADI) have joined forces to design and manufacture an innovative patient gown for the 21st Century, to be launched at the 2009 Clean Show in New Orleans’ Morial Convention Center. The recent front page Wall Street Journal article, May 11, 2009, describes the present patient gown as being “…around as long as the Band-Aid.”
In clinical trials, the ECT gown has been described as fulfilling a long void for a patient gown that facilitates the delivery of quality care while maintaining patient comfort, privacy and dignity. The ECT gown promotes compliance with Joint Commission Safety Standards and helps reduce the risks of hospital acquired infections (HAI.)
The U.S. patented ECT gown is designed by nursing clinicians who recognize the need for change. The ECT patient gown is certain to be the new standard, solving the challenges modern medicine and technology poses to patient care providers. The unique features of the ECT gown were developed from twenty years of hands-on nursing experience.
The well-designed, cost effective ECT gown, increases efficiencies, lowers operating costs and helps improve positive patient outcomes. Competitively priced, the ECT patient gown provides sustainable value to the bottom line.
Come and see the American Dawn Inc. LIVE DEMONSTRATION of the new next generation gown at Booth #5036.
I hope some of the hospitals will improve their facilities and services…
Many people were afraid to go to hospitals because of this reasons..
New Full-Torso Hospital Gown Preserves Patients’ Dignity
Tonawanda, NY: For years, doctors, nurses and patients have wondered why someone hasn't come up with a modest yet practical patient hospital gown that covers the backside while allowing medical personnel easy access to the patient’s body.
And now there is. AMD-Ritmed, Inc., a leading distributor of hospital clothing, supplies and disposables, has begun sales of the Privacy Preferred Hospital Gown, an FDA-approved, patented garment designed by a recovery room nurse and anesthesiologist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xqYRQe60b8
Traditional hospital gowns that tie at the neck and are open at the back have been around since the 1920s, and been the bane of patients and health practitioners ever since.
But with its V-neck, ties that are connected at the sides and tie together in the front and a row of snaps at both shoulder seams, the Privacy Preferred Hospital Gown allows access to the entire length of the body for examination, procedures, dressing changes and wound care, auscultation and lead placement, while keeping the patient fully covered.
The Privacy Preferred Hospital Gown is ideal for all acute and clinical settings. One side of the gown can be unsnapped for IV bag changes and nursing mothers, while the V-neck allows for EKG lead placement.
In a code situation where seconds matter, one strong pull on the front of the gown unsnaps the entire shoulder seam, allowing quick access to the chest for lead and paddle placement.
Cost-effective, washable and reusable, the Privacy Preferred Hospital Gown is made of 55% cotton and 45% polyester and comes in four sizes: Children's/Small (Torso: 26 ½ inches x 30 inches), Medium (Torso: 30 inches x 37 inches), Large (Torso: 35 inches x 42 ½ inches), and X-Large (Torso: 44 inches x 49 inches).
The Privacy Preferred Hospital Gown is available in cases of 50 pieces through all major distributors to acute and long term care facilities and clinics nationwide. For more information, contact AMD-Ritmed Customer Service at 800-445-0340 http://www.amdritmed.com.
In addition to Peg's company – (I used her jackets during my breast cancer treatments), I too decided to create cancer patient wear to help patients already coping with the physical and emotional side effects of cancer. It is time the heath care field embraced the fact that the traditional johnny is no longer appropriate, and is in fact humiliating to those of us that are forced to wear them in order to receive treatment.
My cancer patient wear can be found at http://www.jazzyjohnnys.com
September 16, 2009
Richmond, Virginia
16th U.S. Surgeon General Commends American Dawn's ECT Patient Gown As an innovation that may help to lower healthcare costs by reducing Hospital Acquired Infections. In his Keynote Address to the Fourth Annual Supplier Diversity Forum in Mechanicsville, Virginia on Wednesday Dr. David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D. talked about the need for creative products to meet the challenges of modern medicine. Dr. Satcher, former Surgeon General of the United States, singled out the New ECT Patient Gown manufactured exclusively by American Dawn, Inc. In speaking with the Critical Care Nurse who invented the patented, new gown, he learned that the advanced I.V. Gown is designed to help prevent Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs).
The ECT Gown, generously sized to fit most patients, reduces the need to stock multiple sizes, lowering inventory requirements. The competitively priced ECT patient gown has unique features that no other gown on the market provides. It promotes early post-surgical ambulation, a practice critical to avoiding expensive, life threatening complications and infections. The overlapping back design of the ECT Gown eliminates the need for the patient to wear two gowns for privacy and modesty issues, and the gown also allow nurses better visibility of medical devices from central lines to drains and feeding tubes, which improves caregiver efficiency and adds to the bottom line.
Addressing the Forum’s 176 healthcare product manufacturers, distributors, top officials from major hospital systems and Group Purchasing Organizations, Dr. Satcher, former Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Assistant Secretary for Health, spoke of the need for excellence and creative thinking in reducing the overall cost of healthcare in the United States. He cited the ECT Gown from American Dawn as innovative, and as an example of added value that diverse suppliers can bring to hospitals and other healthcare providers to fortify the healthcare system in the United States.
The ECT Gown has received 100% positive endorsements in a number of hospital trials. Chief Nursing Officers, Clinical Value Analysis Committees, and a number of healthcare innovation forums have also recommended the gown. Different nursing specialties including ICU, Infection Control, Wound Care, Surgical, and others have confirmed the system-wide application of the ECT Gown.
September 16, 2009
Richmond, Virginia
16th U.S. Surgeon General Commends American Dawn's ECT Patient Gown As an innovation that may help to lower healthcare costs by reducing Hospital Acquired Infections. In his Keynote Address to the Fourth Annual Supplier Diversity Forum in Mechanicsville, Virginia on Wednesday Dr. David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D. talked about the need for creative products to meet the challenges of modern medicine. Dr. Satcher, former Surgeon General of the United States, singled out the New ECT Patient Gown manufactured exclusively by American Dawn, Inc. In speaking with the Critical Care Nurse who invented the patented, new gown, he learned that the advanced I.V. Gown is designed to help prevent Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs).
The ECT Gown, generously sized to fit most patients, reduces the need to stock multiple sizes, lowering inventory requirements. The competitively priced ECT patient gown has unique features that no other gown on the market provides. It promotes early post-surgical ambulation, a practice critical to avoiding expensive, life threatening complications and infections. The overlapping back design of the ECT Gown eliminates the need for the patient to wear two gowns for privacy and modesty issues, and the gown also allow nurses better visibility of medical devices from central lines to drains and feeding tubes, which improves caregiver efficiency and adds to the bottom line.
Addressing the Forum’s 176 healthcare product manufacturers, distributors, top officials from major hospital systems and Group Purchasing Organizations, Dr. Satcher, former Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Assistant Secretary for Health, spoke of the need for excellence and creative thinking in reducing the overall cost of healthcare in the United States. He cited the ECT Gown from American Dawn as innovative, and as an example of added value that diverse suppliers can bring to hospitals and other healthcare providers to fortify the healthcare system in the United States.
The ECT Gown has received 100% positive endorsements in a number of hospital trials. Chief Nursing Officers, Clinical Value Analysis Committees, and a number of healthcare innovation forums have also recommended the gown. Different nursing specialties including ICU, Infection Control, Wound Care, Surgical, and others have confirmed the system-wide application of the ECT Gown.