Editor's note: A letter (July) from Lisa Cogswell about carpeting in hospitals called for feedback from readers. The following are some responses.

I don't think hospital floors should be carpeted. I can't count the number of patients who were incontinent as I walked them to the bathroom. Try placing a 220-lb. patient who has had a myocardial infarction on a stretcher with four IV pumps and a Life Pack and transporting him to the ICU on carpeted hallways. This is not the way to prevent back injuries. Florence Nightingale said it best in 1860 in Notes on Nursing: "For a sick room, a carpet is perhaps the worst expedient which could by any possibility have been invented. . . . A dirty carpet literally infects the room. And if you consider the enormous quantity of organic matter from the feet of people coming in, which must saturate it, this is by no means surprising."

Sylvia Pulliam Lackey, MSN, RN, CEN

Rockville, MD