In this guest column, Dan Scungio, MT(ASCP), SLS, laboratory safety officer for multihospital system Sentara Healthcare in Virginia, and otherwise known as “Dan, the Lab Safety Man,” discusses the important issues that affect your job every day. Today he discusses fire safety.
Actually, that title is a bit misleading because, truth be told, the most frequently cited conditions in the physical environment as collated by our friends from Chicago over the past year or so are pretty much the ones they’ve been for as far back as I can remember (which is far enough).
The United States is experiencing a mental health crisis among people of all ages, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Some patients are able to seek care from their primary care practitioners or mental health professionals. Others must turn to the emergency...
Hospital security teams have long played a critical role in patient and staff safety—but under increasing OSHA scrutiny, their responsibilities now stretch even further.
As I see it, the current changes to the Joint Commission accreditation process that are barreling at us with almost alarming speed (it will be January before you know it—and I’m keeping close tabs on that, let me tell you) represent a significant opportunity to streamline the oversight processes...
Hospital workplace violence prevention often comes with good intentions, but incomplete execution. Many hospitals today have crisis response plans on file and security teams on standby.
Hospital lab safety leaders don’t need another reminder about the technician shortage—they’re living it. But what’s often overlooked is the competition beyond the walls of healthcare: Remote jobs, limited career mobility, and lackluster recruiting infrastructure are draining the talent pipeline...
Over the years, I have met a number of folks that got their healthcare start in what used to be known as housekeeping. I got in just at the end of the “housekeeping” era; we morphed into “building services.”
