Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Weill Medical College of Cornell University New York, New York Laurence B. McCullough, Ph.D. cikkei

Handwashing between patients has become such an integral part of modern obstetrics that failure to wash one’s hands is unthinkable in a professional organizational culture, i.e., an organizational culture systematically committed to patient safety and quality of care. Unfortunately, many obstetricians do not know who pioneered this fundamental component of patient safety, Ignác Semmelweis (1818-1865), and the resistance that he encountered. The hypothesis that the transfer of “putrid matter” from the hands of physicians and medical students to gravid patients caused puerperal fever had been articulated as early as 1795 by the Scottish physician, Alexander Gordon (1752-1799), and supported by the prominent American physician, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894).