Physician Practice

The physical fix

Medical Environment Update, August 18, 2019

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EDITOR’S NOTE: In this guest column, Dan Scungio, MT(ASCP), SLS, laboratory safety officer for Sentara Healthcare, a multihospital system in Virginia, and otherwise known as “Dan, the Lab Safety Man,” discusses the important issues that affect your job every day.

The microbiology laboratory was newly remodeled, and the staff was excited to have windows in the department. But when summer came, it was unbearably hot in the laboratory, and the building’s air handling systems could not keep the temperatures at a comfortable level. Eventually, staff began working without lab coats, and someone brought portable fans into the area. Over time, people began to notice that the agar plates were all contaminated with mold growth, and because one fan was pointed toward the biological safety cabinet, two employees became exposed to tuberculosis.

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Medical Environment Update.

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