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In recent years, studies have revealed that it is common for patients to leave the hospital only to
return with a new illness. In an attempt to explain the phenomenon, Dr. Harlan Krumholz, a
professor of medicine and public health at Yale School of Medicine, has suggested patients may
suffer from a period of vulnerability, which he called the "post-hospital syndrome." The combination
of a recovering body and a stressful hospital experience could make people less able to fend off new
diseases, Krumholz wrote in his 2013 article published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Pain, a lack of privacy, examinations by strangers who fail to identify themselves and other factors
may make a hospital stay traumatic for the patient, Krumholz wrote.
One way to improve patients' experience would be to encourage them to wear their own clothing,
Krumholz and his colleague Dr. Allan Detsky, of the University of Toronto, suggested in a recent
commentary published in JAMA in June. "This would help patients maintain their self-esteem and
orientation, and also remind their care professionals to recognize them as people," the doctors
wrote.
Most patients may also welcome the choice of wearing pants. In the new study, Lee found 17
patients at one hospital who could wear pants without causing a problem, according to their doctors,
and asked these patients whether they preferred to wear pants. Thirteen of the patients said they
wanted to wear pants. The other four patients expressed indifference, and said they were
comfortable with the hospital gown, Lee said.
Lee noted that encouraging patients to wear their own clothes does introduce concerns about
laundry, but the benefits would likely outweigh the problems. Alternatively, hospitals could provide
scrubs made for patients, which may be a costlier choice but would be easy to put on and easy to
launder.
"Any clothing is probably superior to the gown, even if patients were wearing pajamas that allowed
them to walk around the hallway without exposing themselves," Lee said.
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