Will Scrubs Become the New Norm?

A quick search of internet articles and forum posts about medical office dress will yield widely differing and often contentious discussions about what doctors should wear to their places of work.

For many optometrists, business attire, often accompanied by a lab coat, has been the normal dress code of the profession. With infection concerns raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, ODs are re-thinking the use of scrubs in their practices, not only from a safety perspective, but also as a marketing tool.

A 2016 study of patient preferences for health care providers found, “…most patients (73%) preferred professional attire for their dermatologists in most settings. It is possible that patients’ perceptions of their physicians’ knowledge and skill is influenced by the physicians’ appearance, and those perceptions may affect outcomes.”

But will patient perspectives change now that COVID-19 is a concern each time many leave the house?

One Illinois corporate-affiliated optometry practice researched the pros and cons of switching from business casual office attire to scrubs for both their medical and support staff and shared what they found, and what they’ve decided to do concerning office dress, with Corporate Optometrist. ©

Starting the Conversation

“We started to throw around the idea of wearing scrubs in our office because many doctors wear dress clothes that need to be dry cleaned,” says Dawn Kaplan, OD, owner of Visibly Better Eye Care, which consists of two Costco leases in Lake Zurich and Mettawa, Illinois.

“Many of us wear clothing items multiple days before we take them to the dry cleaners, like pants, especially. Once COVID-19 safety concerns started to pop up, we noticed that when we would go out of the office to have lunch or run errands and come back, you just didn’t feel like you should be wearing those clothes anymore, almost like you were contaminating your car,” says Kaplan. “It made sense that this is why doctors and nurses wear scrubs in the hospital every day. They can have a clean fresh pair every day.”

“I’ve been practicing for 26 years and I stopped wearing white lab coats my second year of practice. Part of the problem is that unless you wash them every day, they are just harborers of bacteria and other germs. The white lab coat and men’s tie are supposedly two of the worst pieces of clothing for this.”

“When we first started discussing earing scrubs, my female doctors and I were all on board with the idea because we just wanted to make things easy, simple and clean,” say Kaplan, who has five doctors and 15 administrative and support. “I have two male doctors and I wasn’t sure if they would be interested, but they were all for it.”

“The doctors decided unanimously that we want to wear black scrubs. I gave my staff, which is primarily women, five different color options to choose from, and they voted almost unanimously for a wine color. I decided to add in a royal blue option as well, because it matches my branding and logo.”

“We decided to wear gym shoes (possibly in a fun color) that we’ll keep in the office and change into. The gym shoe option is one thing everyone is very happy about!”

As far as office dress goes, Visibly Better Eye Care is taking a wait-and-see attitude, says Kaplan. “I hear from my colleagues that their staffs just love wearing scrubs because they’re cheap, they’re easy and you don’t have to think about what you’re wearing. For doctors, it’s always expensive to keep up a nice wardrobe with shoes and accessories that go along with professional dress, so this could be a real money saver in the long run.”