Hospital gown protects from infection

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) - Modesty may not come to mind when one imagines wearing a thin blue hospital gown that doesn't close in the back.

But there is a new type of gown that's not only warmer, it's helping lower hospital infection rates.

The Bair Paws gown is designed to keep surgical patients' temperature normal at 97 degrees to protect from infection. The gown design is new, but the technology has been around for about 20 years.

"They are actually a very modified example of your mother's old hair dryer," said Kitty Williams, Clinical Resource Manager for Riverside Regional Medical Center. "You know the bonnet she would wear over the pink curlers and stuff, it's the same thing."

At Riverside, in Newport News, they use the Bair Hugger , which is made by the same company, Arizant . It's the same idea as the gown, but in blanket form.

Williams showed us how they work by plugging one end of a long hose into a hot air generator and the other into the blanket. It then puffs up like a raft.

Our model Crystal let us peek underneath where we saw the tiny holes. It reminds one of the feel of putting a hand over an air hockey table.

Only this isn't a game. Studies prove warming patients also lowers the risk of heart attack after surgery, time spent in the ICU and in recovery.

And since it costs less then laundering a bunch of blankets, the company that makes it reports more than 80 percent of hospitals in the U.S. use the Bair Hugger.