Hazard Potential at Hospital Labs Calls for Comprehensive Safety Plan
The bells start to tap! In a few seconds, the dispatcher barks out the location: “Box 1415, General Hospital,” As the engines and truck companies draw closer to their destination, the dispatcher again barks, “Reported to be a working fire in the clinical laboratory.”
The clinical laboratory, what is it? What do they do behind those walls? What are the hazards? Can you answer these questions? Not many of us can.
Clinical laboratories at most hospitals are centrally located within the complex. They serve almost every department of the hospital and they contain a wide variety of flammable liquids, flammable and nonflammable gases, chemicals and biologicals, as well as electronic equipment.
Safety plan needed
To be prepared for an emergency in a laboratory, a comprehensive safety plan must be developed. To initiate the program, you must establish a liaison between fire service and laboratory officials. The main thrust of the program should be to develop a mutual awareness of the potential problems that can arise in a laboratory.
To put the program into action, you must develop a fire safety plan that meets the following requirements:
- A lab safety committee comprised of one employee from each department in the laboratory and a member from t fire service must be established.
- A fire prevention program must formulated that emphasizes the identification of hazardous conditions.
- Employee protection and evacuation procedures should be established.
- Emergency situation procedures must be developed. The duties of personnel on the emergency action team must be defined.
- A safety manual should be written to include employee safety, patient safety, and emergency protocol.
- Employee training must include the formation of a fire brigade of employees to handle their emergencies.
- Tours of the lab by fire fighters should be initiated so they can see the potential dangers with which they must cope.
Lab inspection
The first phase is an inspection of the lab. National Fire Protection Association Standard 56-C, “Laboratories in Health-Related Institutions,” and the “Handbook of Laboratory Safety” can be the basic guides for the inspector. It is essential that you draw a floor plan and it is important to remember that during the inspection, you will probably find numerous problems that need to be rectified. Greater success will be achieved if you are helpful in recommending corrections rather than critical or forceful.
A list of problem areas should be compiled and given to the laboratory supervisors. Remember to incorporate basics, such as the type of construction and proper hourly separation of structural components. The inspector should list all the gases, acids, bases and solvents used in the laboratory. They should be listed by NFPA classification where possible.
Training program
Employee training is the key to a successful program. Basic elements of fire service education are incorporated in the training program. All lah employees attend annual tabletop demonstrations and discussions of the triangle of fire, the combustion process, the causes of fires, and the handling of hazardous materials. Then the employees participate in a training session in which they use portable extinguishers on live fires.
In our laboratory training program, we also include special problems, such as acid or base spills, biological hazard control, and decontamination procedures. It is the goal of this employee training phase to have the employees develop an awareness of the potential hazards they work with and how to control them.
The fire brigade should be composed of volunteers from each shift who are trained to work in teams to handle emergencies while the fire department is responding. The brigade members should be trained to use self-contained breathing apparatus, which laboratories have available, and they should undergo training in fire suppression and control with an emphasis on personal safety.
Annual tours urged
Fire department personnel should make annual tours of a laboratory area. This will help them understand what a clinical laboratory does, become familiar with the layout and become cognizant of the hazards they may encounter.
The chemicals, flammable liquids, various gases, and the electrical and biological hazards may be a new field of challenge to the fire fighters so they must be informed of the hazards and means of control. The fire fighters can develop ideas for access, equipment needs, effective ventilation and evacuation procedures.
The aim of this project is to develop an awareness of the problems in a clinical laboratory and to prepare the employees and fire fighters to combat any emergency that may arise.