Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite

Dean,

We recently went out of state and drove straight through instead of our typical two day hotel stopover trip.  This time it was due to the circumstances, but a part of me was relieved not to be staying at a hotel.  The last two years I've been leary about the bedbug issue.  Thanks for the travel tips.  That'll ease my mind next year!

In NYC, the protocol in the home care agency I worked for was a bedbug assessment upon initial visit. If there were bedbugs found in the home, appropriate extermination services were contacted with the patients' agreement (part of care management, one of those gray areas of is it social care, health care, or both?). From that point onward, clinicians carried large black garbage bags with them. When they entered a patient's home, the backpack containing all the equipment and paperwork and the clinicians coat was placed in the bag and tied shut. The visit was performed, and the clinician did a check in a mirror (if available) for any "hangers on". Once outside the home, bag was reopened gear removed and bag discarded. That would've been the last visit of the day at which point the clinician goes home, removes all clothing and immediately washes them.

I've had the experience of working in infected homes. It isn't fun. It got to the point where no matter where I worked, the Polo Grounds Public Housing projects or a 5th Avenue Penthouse (Bedbugs know no social boundaries) I never sat on anything upholstered and never, ever sat on a patient's bed.

When traveling, look on trip advisor for recommendations about your hotel. Often bedbugs will come up. Don't stay there no matter how cheap the price or nice it looks in the pictures!

This is a problem that is not going away anytime soon unfortunately.