Ensure your workers are up to date on respirator fit testing and falls protection protocols, especially if OSHA has cited your healthcare facility for those safety problems in the last five years. If the facility is found to be a “willful” repeat offender, the penalties could be much worse...
Laboratorians work with vendor or field service representatives on a regular basis, all of whom provide important products, equipment, and services. However, lab managers and employees need to pay special attention to the actions that reps take in the lab and the information that they provide....
Though strides have been made, there are still cases of patients getting the wrong drug or the wrong dose of medication. The FDA receives over 100,000 reported cases of medication...
“When contractors are hired, there should be an agreement which designates which agency will provide which [safety] requirements,” Scungio says. “The bottom line is that contracted employees must follow all required safety practices and policies of the temporary employer organization.”
Specimen couriers are often overlooked when it comes to proper safety training. They perform the important role of transporting specimens for testing, but without the proper education and tools, they can find themselves in harmful situations.
Sharps safety is a perennial problem in the laboratory environment, and staff can become inured to the dangers that needles, syringes, and other sharps pose after dealing with them day in and day out. It’s always a good time to remind staff about sharps safety and disposal, so we talked with ...
Hand hygiene remains a perennial issue in healthcare and requires constant vigilance on the part of providers. With the “tripledemic” of COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus this...
Wespoke with Steve MacArthur, a safety consultant with Chartis Clinical Quality Solutions, about a healthcare facility’s safety obligations toward its contracted workers. This Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity.
In 2016, because of several incidents in national high-containment laboratories, a “safety stand-down” was recommended. That term gets used often, but not everyone understands how a safety stand-down works. Has your department been in a similar situation? Have you encountered a series of similar...
