Anatomic pathology laboratories present safety concerns that can differ from those in the clinical lab. Formaldehyde and other hazardous chemicals are used to preserve tissue specimens; workers can be exposed to large amounts of blood and body fluid during autopsies; and the sharp blades in...
Exposed skin and lab work simply don’t mix, which is why open-toed shoes are verboten in the laboratory, says Dan Scungio, MT(ASCP), SLS, a laboratory safety officer for multihospital system Sentara Healthcare in Virginia. However, that isn’t the only consideration when picking...
Summer is officially over, and the clocks will fall back an hour this upcoming weekend. It’s a time of transition as people bring out their fall clothes, enjoy spiced drinks, and ready themselves for colder weather and longer nights. It’s also time for your laboratory and staff to make the...
It comes with the territory of being the safety officer that you are responsible to make sure holiday decorations do not affect the overall safety of your facility. The Life Safety Code®, which CMS and other deeming authorities observe, generally prohibits combustible...
Living in Virginia, hurricane season usually has me thinking about lab disaster plans and the risk of a real natural disaster. In the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, the highest hurricane risk occurs between September and November. So far this year, a few storms have pointed in this...
This is the second part of our interview with Sean G. Kaufman, CEO and founding partner of the lab safety company Safer Behaviors, on cultural challenges in the laboratory setting and how to fix them.
It doesn’t take a lot to make a culture, but in the laboratory or clinic it takes a great deal of work to make a culture into a safety culture. Even when two facilities have the same polices and rules, there are still differences in leadership, personalities, methods, and expectations—all of...
“Often the work drives us together, but again, then it gets to that difference between ‘we connect when we have to because the work demands it’ versus ‘we’re intentional in the team construct and we maintain that because we know the value it brings to being more reliable and delivering on higher...
Sean G. Kaufman, CEO and founding partner of the lab safety company Safer Behaviors, offered Medical Environment Update some suggestions on engagement in a recent interview.
Getting staff engaged with safety training can be the difference between them remembering how to do something safely and them injuring themselves or...
