I've been wondering about this...

when I drive near our local hospitals, I always see people wandering around the streets in scrubs. They seem to treat them as everyday comfy clothes. (And no doubt they display their health-wear to gain the little person's ego boost from being part of a prestigious and oppressive institution.)

Opinion: Hospital Scrubs' Deadly Mess - WSJ.com:

You see them everywhere -- nurses, doctors and medical technicians in scrubs or lab coats. They shop in them, take buses and trains in them, go to restaurants in them, and wear them home. What you can't see on these garments are the bacteria that could kill you.

Dirty scrubs spread bacteria to patients in the hospital and allow hospital superbugs to escape into public places such as restaurants. Some hospitals now prohibit wearing scrubs outside the building, partly in response to the rapid increase in an infection called "C. diff." A national hospital survey released last November warns that Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections are sickening nearly half a million people a year in the U.S., more than six times previous estimates...