Hospital 'johnny' gets a redesign (to help Muslim women)

[MaineDem]

Everyone who has been hospitalized or has undergone an outpatient procedure knows - and probably loathes - the skimpy, ill-fitting, one-size-fits-none hospital gown.

Maine Medical Center finally decided to do something about it upon discovering that Muslim women accustomed to being fully covered were skipping appointments to avoid the immodest garments.

The redesigned hospital gown, made available to all Maine Medical patients six weeks ago, leaves them fully covered.

...

At Maine Medical Center, administrators decided they had to act last November after the hospital identified a high no-show rate for Muslim women from African countries, particularly Somalia. As many as three out of 10 women were skipping their appointments, said Osman Hersi, a medical interpreter at the hospital.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/040809johnnie.shtml

[UpInArms]

1. all you need do is ask

Maine Medical, which has put the new gowns on all garment carts for patients who request them, isn't the only hospital to try to create a gown that is more acceptable to patients.

and who in their right mind wouldn't?

[SoCalDem]

2. I hate that paper doilie they give me..I'm gonna ask for one too

:)

[eyesroll]

3. If I'm just in there for a physical, then I don't really care

It's just my doctor, and I think when I hear "feet in the stirrups and scooch to the front of the table," all modesty is gone anyway.

If I was going to be hospitalized, and med students and housekeepers and my parents and the guy who fixes the TV will be coming in and out at all hours, I'd want something more substantial.

[tekriter]

4. As a former nurses' aide, and also at one time the dietary kid...

who brings in the dinner trays, I heartily recommend that about 98% of us ask for something with more coverage!

Myself included.

[Trillo]

6. I bet others often have asked

for something more substantial. Males too--I know I have. But they, the doctors and nurses, never listened to me. They don't care if you have to walk down a hallway from one more private exam room to another, where who knows who might see your open backside.

It's part of their authority by disclothing and exposing. We heard of that practiced to an extreme degree at Abu Gharaib.

[Scairp]

5. "Why didn't we think of this so long ago?"

Good question, why didn't they? I'll tell you why, they just couldn't care less about the dignity of patients, and female patients in particular. I wouldn't sit in a hallway with one of those things on either, and I'm not a Muslim. I have always hated those fucking gowns, and I think all patients should have access to the new kind, not just religious women. Jewish women, very religious ones at least, also won't go around uncovered, so it's just plain thoughtlessness that prevented them from redesigning the gowns before now.

[kittykitty]

7. Did you ever use the kind with 3 arm holes?

They are generously cut and while confusing to put on, they "wrap around" and keep you from being exposed. They laeve the arms and legs showing, though.

[noonwitch]

8. After having surgery, the first thing I did was put on panties!

I hate those things, too. As soon as they took my iv out, I had on a t-shirt and sweat pants.

[allalone]

9. good idea for all

for the present, I take 2 and put one on backwards.

[DemBones DemBones]

10. Isn't it sad that the complaints of native Americans (not Native

Americans, just all of us descendants of immigrant type Americans) never made an impression?

Newsflash to all medical personnel and hospital administrators: We DEMAND a cover-up!