Actually, just about every hospital in the country should be using these. It's a fairly recent adition to most hospitals for it to be a REQUIREMENT. Now, this applies only to folks walking around the hospital in SURGICAL scrubs (most hospitals have one color for scrubs to be worn within the surgical theatre and one or more others for folks in IM, etc.). JCAHO has really been cracking down the past couple of years on people wearing uncovered surgical scrubs outside the operating theatre. The reasons are many and most frankly don't make sense, but that's JCAHO, right? Many hospitals give people in surgical scrubs the option of wearing either a surgical gown or their white coat to cover the scrubs. Med students -- wearing the shorties -- can wear their white coats in some hospitals; however, in others (Cook County for one), these coats are considered "too short," so students in surgical scrubs MUST wear these surgical gowns.
