In this guest column, Dan Scungio, MT(ASCP), SLS, laboratory safety officer for multihospital system Sentara Healthcare in Virginia, and otherwise known as “Dan, the Lab Safety Man,” discusses the important issues that affect your job every day. Today he talks about the importance of...
When talking about culture in healthcare, two terms that come up often are “safety culture” and “just culture.” A laboratory safety professional will likely be familiar with the former, but what is the latter?
In July, the U.S. Department of Labor announced several programs designed to help employers, unions, and pension plans voluntarily assess and improve their compliance with federal labor laws. The self-audit programs, which include new and updated offerings, aim to enhance worker protections...
This is Part 2 of our interview with Jason P. Nagy, PhD, MLS(ASCP), QLS; Dan Scungio, MT(ASCP), SLS; and Sean G. Kaufman on preventing and responding to exposures in the laboratory.
In this guest column, Dan Scungio, MT(ASCP), SLS, laboratory safety officer for multihospital system Sentara Healthcare in Virginia, and otherwise known as “Dan, the Lab Safety Man,” discusses the important issues that affect your job every day. Today he talks about lab safety practices.
One of the most feared laboratory safety risks is exposure to hazardous materials, be they biological, chemical, or radioactive. Preventing and responding to these events are key to every laboratory safety officer’s job, and knowing what to do can sometimes be the difference between life and...
Safety training shouldn’t be something that is performed once and put aside. Yet in far too many laboratories, that’s exactly what happens. Do you have a new employee? Train them. Have they been on staff for a few years? Maybe you should do a yearly fire drill and that’s it. However, just like...
To make things safer, your laboratory has banned cell phones as a distraction and infection control risk. However, if you have a machine or computer program that requires a two-factor authentication code sent to someone’s phone to work, what are lab staff supposed to do—break the no-phone rule...
Even as healthcare organizations improve their training and technology around drug diversion prevention, a 2025 report reveals that cracks remain—particularly in culture, coordination, and confidence.
