The COVID-19 pandemic has had a lasting impact on healthcare, and its burden on the medical system and healthcare workers (HCW) has led to negative patient safety consequences. Numerous publications have detailed how the pandemic has alarmingly eroded our decade of former progress in reducing...
For me, corn is nothing new. I like it, but I don’t get excited about it, and when it is on my plate I don’t pay it much attention. The laboratory can be like that for staff members who work there every day. It’s nothing new, it’s just where they work, and they stop paying attention to it.
The U.S. healthcare staffing crisis is severely impacting patients. Among other effects, it is causing a dramatic increase in the length of expensive hospital stays.
Four in 10 hospitals have struggled to appropriately discharge patients due to staffing shortages (Reed, 2022). Moreover,...
Contaminated hands are a primary vehicle in transmitting germs and viruses, which means hand hygiene remains imperative to protect patients, staff, and visitors. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hand hygiene is one of the most effective tools to mitigate the impact of...
During new lab employee orientation, safety training should be one of the first items, and it should include information about fire prevention and preparedness. Orient the new staff to the layout of the department. Show them the exits and the designated evacuation meeting location.
Before COVID-19, deaths from antimicrobial resistance were headed in the right direction, decreasing by nearly 30% in hospitals between 2012 and 2017. But in 2020, resistant hospital-onset infections and deaths both increased by 15% compared to 2019.
There is a new “pox” on lab safety—monkeypox. Like the most recent novel virus (COVID-19), the unknowns about the monkeypox virus are creating new safety concerns for laboratorians, and it is now time to nip unnecessary fears in the bud. Safety leaders can accomplish this through preparation and...
I run a small, independent practice out of Arlington, Texas. And when I say “small practice,” I mean that it’s just me—along with my nurse and my administrator who runs the front desk. We serve everyday people in the greater Arlington-Dallas area, and most of our patients are regulars. Sometimes...
