Jersey City Hospital Bans Neckties to Reduce Spread of Flu

MYFOXNY.COM - Jersey City Medical Center has begun a new policy that calls for physicians and other health care practitioners who work with patients to avoid wearing neckties.

Hospital officials say that neckties can spread influenza and other germs.

"We are enacting this policy as part of a good faith effort to prevent the spread of flu and other organisms," said Joseph Scott, president and CEO of LibertyHealth, which operates and manages Jersey City Medical Center and Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus. "It is part of our overall policy to prevent the spread of infection whenever possible."

The police was approved by the hospital's Infection Control Committee, based on research studies that show that multi drug resistant organisms and other harmful bacteria remain on clothing, such as neckties.