Half of Disposable Gowns Fail to Protect Workers, Report Says (1)

More than half of a set of disposable hospital gowns tested by an independent patient safety organization failed to meet standard levels of protection for health workers, according to a report released Tuesday.

ECRI, a health-care safety nonprofit, tested 34 different models of gowns from medical suppliers mostly outside the U.S. that don’t traditionally sell gowns to medical facilities. The tests found that 50% of the gowns didn’t meet the level of protection they claimed according to standards set by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation—the same ones used by the Food and Drug Administration.

If a ...