Safety

Tip of the week: Follow-up ideas about duct tape on decon suits

Hospital Safety Connection, June 24, 2009

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A couple of weeks back, we wrote about how useful it is to stick a piece of duct tape on the back of any worker in a decontamination suit and write that person’s name on the tape as a way to constantly identify them. A reader let us know about how his hospital takes that idea a step further.
 
Harry Myers, MBA, CHPA, director of safety, security, and emergency management at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, PA, told us he puts the following additional information on the tape:
  • The time the person put on the suit (generally, people should only stay in a decon suit for 30-minute stretches)
  • The person’s blood pressure before suiting up (a much higher blood pressure reading upon taking off the suit might indicate physical stress, which should necessitate medical clearance before returning into a suit, and also decreased time in the gear during subsequent suit-ups)
Thanks for your thoughts Harry--they’re great ideas.



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