So the Joint Commission, via OSHA, thinks food and drink at the nurses station is a bad idea. They aren't worried that you'll spill coffee all over your computer. They aren't worried that you'll some how you'll infect patients with a deadly bacteria. If they were we wouldn't have the dirtiest place in a hospital being the coffee machines.
The no food or drink rule is driven to protect me, the doctor from ingesting life threatening MRSA nursing germs that have contaminated, forever, the air space of the nurses station.
Don't leave your coffee cup unattended or the coffee police will swoop in and confiscate your contraband. We need those folks in Afghanistan. They always seem to know where the enemy coffee stockpile is being stored. So I'm left with no solution but to take my Don't worry though, I usually put a squirt of two of alcohol sanitizer in the coffee to keep the patients from getting infected and to keep me from picking up deadly nursing germs.
I figure I might as well apply HIPAA regulations to my advantage. I carry around my cup of coffee medication. What's in the cup is privileged information. That's between me and my doctor.
Want to see more posts about coffee medication? Check 'em out below.
- Starbucks Coffee Traveler. That's a lot of medication to haul around.
- BP Coffee Spill Video. Good humor.
- Death by caffeine test. Find out how much caffeine is too much caffeine.
