Elimination: All poorly functioning equipment such as hospital beds, sit to stand lifts and portable mechanical lifts need to be set-aside and labelled for biomed. So that they can be fixed or replaced.
Substitution: In my facility and many other hospitals, latex free gloves have replaced latex gloves to eliminate staff experiencing latex skin reactions.
Engineering Controls: When getting total patient’s out of bed, staff can use a ceiling lift that is electrically powered to help get the patient out of bed. This reduces the heavy lifting that nurses have to perform.
Administrative Controls: When patients have some sort of respiratory infection, such as covid-19, we are encouraged to “cluster care.” Clustering care limits the amount of face to face interaction between the nurse and the patient thus limiting the likelihood of the nurse becoming infected. This would mean clustering vital signs, medications and perhaps setting up for breakfast all at the same time. Rather than going in three separate times to complete each task.
PPE: Staff are encouraged to wear PPE if a patient begins to show any new infectious symptoms such as a new cough or PPE. It is no longer expected that you wait for a positive test such as a respiratory panel or c.diff swab.
