Archive for: Popular
A fashion faux pas in the laboratory
We’ve all seen how fashion trends can sometimes infiltrate the laboratory or medical facility. Crocs, for example, have been one of the most debated fashion statements in the healthcare setting.
So it’s no surprise that a certain style of scrubs have fallen into this category as well.
I recently received a question regarding capri style scrub pants (which cut off just below the knees). This supervisor wanted to know if laboratory techs and phlebotomists are allowed to wear these as long as they wear closed-toe shoes.
Just for laughs, what’s wrong with this picture?
A scrub team member wearing lime green Crocs with ventilation holes stands in a puddle of some nasty-looking fluid next to an operating room table.
Before that gets your OSHA and infection control hackles up, relax. It’s a cartoon, but one with more than just a little bit of truth to it.
Employer respirator policy: You can’t have your cake and eat it too
Employers who want it both both ways from employees on respiratory protection are getting under my skin…better make that under my N95 respirator.
It wasn’t so long ago that when I explained to healthcare employers that the use of disposable N95 respirators required a written respiratory protection plan that included, among other things, medical evaluation and fit testing they responded as if I were crazy: “That’s ridiculous. They’re throwaway masks; why would you need fit testing much less evaluations?”
OSHA: Be prepared to protect employees from flu or face enforcement
In testimony before the House Education and Labor Committee Hearing on ensuring preparedness against the flu virus at school and work on May 7, Jordan Barab, acting assistant secretary of OSHA, made three observations:
- There are plenty of OSHA resources to help employers protect workers who are at high-risk from the new strain of Influenza A (2009-H1N1) virus.
- Because of these resources OSHA expects most healthcare facilities to be fully prepared to provide training, equipment and protection.
- OSHA stands prepared to use its existing authority to aggressively enforce safe work practices to ensure employees receive appropriate protection.
Obama appoints no-holds-barred Barab as OSHA chief
After years of spewing forth against President Bush and his OSHA minions for laissez faire regulatory activity, Jordan Barab is going to Washington to run OSHA, if only on an interim basis.
Actually, Barab has been in Washington for the past two years as senior labor policy advisor for Health and Safety on the House Education and Labor Committee, but prior to that he blogged frequently and passionately on his occupational health and safety Web site Confined Space.
Safety needle use is the law; not a preference
It’s been nine years since provisions the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act have been incorporated into OSHA’s bloodborne pathogens standard, and some healthacre providers still think that the mandatory use of safety devices doesn’t apply to their setting.
Listen to OSHA Q&A Roundtable panelist Jane Perry, associate director, International Healthcare Worker Safety Center, as she sets the record straight on when you must adopt safety devices, when you don’t, and who is not doing it. Please click on the audio clip below.
Learn how you can get all your OSHA questions answered by registering for OSHA Healthcare Advisor’s “Q&A Roundtable: Solutions to Your Compliance Challenges” audioconference, Tuesday, May 19, 2009, 1-2 p.m. (Eastern).
When employees become patients
At a recent infection prevention training seminar, I came across an interesting question regarding employees who come into their own facility for surgery. This particular infection preventionist said a MRSA screening revealed this person was colonized, and wondered if this information should be part of his or her employee records.
This situation could become more frequent, since it isn’t uncommon for employees to go to their own facility for care. Healthcare workers could be considered “high risk” for MRSA and may be screened by some healthcare facilities on admission or before surgery. Many facilities have begun screening high risk patients for MRSA, and as more begin to do so, a scenario that reveals IC information could make IPs feel obligated to take action.
Using Shakespeare for bloodborne pathogens training
And with them words of so sweet breath compos’d
As made the things more rich.
Hamlet [III, 1]
And with them words of so sweet breath compos’d
As made the things more rich.
Hamlet [III, 1]
No one would confuse the compliance-speak of OSHA’s bloodborne pathogens with the purple passages of Shakespeare. Right?
Both the standard and the Bard address heavy and heady stuff, but wouldn’t it be a shame if we failed to heed the OSHA standard because the language is so boring.
Fingernails, food, and beards
“… I can’t believe anyone would wear artificial nails in the lab…”
By David Harbaugh, from the Complete Guide to Lab Safety, 2nd Edition
Hopefully your lab doesn’t look like the one pictured above. If it does, you might need more help than just this post.
Regardless, with regulations, annual training and education, and constant surveillance, it’s easy to forget even the simplest work practices that keep lab workers, healthcare workers and patients safe.
Plastic surgeon turns to liposuction fuel; gets good mileage per gallon of love handles
You’ve heard of living off the fat of the land. Well, one California doctor took that a step further, and has been living off the fat of his patients. Literally.
Dr. Craig Allan Bittner, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, began using the fat he removed from his patients during liposuction procedures to fuel his SUV and his girlfriend’s Lincoln Navigator,
