I heard the bells! Or did I see three ships?

Yet another mixed bag of festive goodies for you this week: I know you’ve all been good (our profession doesn’t really leave a lot of room for anything other than good, so Santa Mac doesn’t even need to make a list and check it once or twice).

First up, a set of HazMat-related items for your consideration:

I’m not sure how many of you folks are still managing ethylene oxide sterilization systems, but it does appear that there’s a movement afoot (or a continuation of an existing movement) to really pare back on the use of ethylene oxide. At present, the proposed rule seems to be aimed at folks using larger quantities of ethylene oxide (more than 1 ton of ethylene oxide per year), but I suspect that the next pass may well start to push down through the smaller-scale users. To that end, the information on the EPA website is probably worth looking at to determine where your current processes and equipment might fall on that continuum. I don’t know any safety professional who is keen to have the stuff in their “house”, but there remains reusable medical equipment that can only be appropriately sterilized (per manufacturer Instructions For Use) with ethylene oxide, so hopefully things will catch up and we can move past this risk.

Next up, an interesting article on increasing climate friendliness in your surgical procedure rooms. I guess anything that can reduce energy costs is worth investigating, though it may work better for those of you planning renovations or new construction of surgical procedure rooms. At any rate, I find that it’s always kind of interesting to see what’s working for folks (recognizing the importance of knowing what doesn’t work as well), so a tale from the land of the New English.

Extending the renovation/construction thought, Becker’s Hospital Review recently published an article discussing healthcare facility construction trends to watch in 2020. I suspect that Becker’s is something that might be on the reading list of the folks in the C-Suite, so it might be worth working their take on construction into your pleas for resources. It certainly can’t hurt.

Finally (I haven’t decided if I’m going to have anything for you next week—I’d rather you enjoy your families), I wanted to share a link to a blog by Peter Martin of Gosselin-Martin Associates that shares some quotes and insights gathered over the last year (and a fitting jumping off point for the (hopefully) next roaring ’20s). If you’re not familiar with Peter and Gosselin-Martin, I would encourage you to do a little checking of the additional blog entries as well as the services they provide. I’ve corresponded fairly often with Peter over the years and I’ve found him to be a consummate professional and a very thoughtful guy—an excellent resource to be sure.

On that note, I will extend my best wishes to each and every one of you for a joyous holiday and that “roaring” start to the ’20s mentioned earlier. Be safe (not that you need me to tell you that) and I’ll be back in almost no time flat!

About the Author: Steve MacArthur is a safety consultant with The Greeley Company in Danvers, Mass. He brings more than 30 years of healthcare management and consulting experience to his work with hospitals, physician offices, and ambulatory care facilities across the country. He is also a contributing editor for Healthcare Safety Leader. Contact Steve at stevemacsafetyspace@gmail.com.