Five Steps to Protect Your Lab Technicians in Your Pathology Lab

Are you concerned with the safety of your lab technicians and staff members that are working tirelessly in your lab during the pandemic?  With the constant threat of infection, it is important to protect our employees as best as possible.  Because the job of lab technicians that offer many types of diagnostic services, like a dermatology pathology lab service in Dallas, TX, is critical this year especially, it is important that we keep our doors open to serve.  This means that we have to take the proper methods and preventative actions to prevent the spread of illness in our lab.  There are a few steps that we take to protect our lab technicians and employees in our pathology lab.

Dispose of Contaminated Products Safely

When you are working with biomedical products and samples, you want to fully understand the proper waste removal practices. Your lab should be equipped with signage and bins that designate specific hazardous waste removal.  Take the time to learn proper safety methods when you are dealing with live human tissues, cells, and other samples that are important in a pathology lab.  This prevents the threat of becoming ill from contracting pathogens or being poked by incorrectly disposed needles.

Wear Gloves

When you are working in a medical facility, you should always wear gloves.  This is especially true when you are touching patients, handling cell samples, or performing medical procedures.  Gloves will protect your hands from contracting or spreading germs that can taint the results of your diagnostic testing procedures, which can result in erroneous courses of treatments for patients.

Focus on High-Touch Areas

When you are cleaning, you should focus on high-touch areas frequently.  To increase your cleaning practices, you should keep sanitizer and disinfecting wipes in these areas to promote healthy habits.  Consider having a reminder for employees to wash or sanitize their hands and the areas they touch.  This is especially important in bathrooms, lobbies, waiting rooms, lunch rooms, and other community areas.

Start with Clean Spaces First

Many people assume that they should clean the dirtiest places first, so they will start with bathrooms or lobbies.  However, this presents a risk of cross-contamination between rooms.  Proper cleaning methods should be to start with the clean spaces first, and then move onto the dirtier spots in your medical practice.

Avoid Cross-Contamination

Anytime you are working in a pathology lab, you will want to avoid cross-contamination.  By ensuring the proper handling of samples, bloodwork, needles, and other products, you will prevent the spread of germs from yourself to your patients.  This will also prevent tainting the samples that are important for diagnostic purposes.  By wearing gloves, throwing away materials properly, and establishing safety protocols, you will avoid the dangers of cross-contamination.

By taking these actions and preventative measures, we can make the effort to ensure that our lab technicians are provided with a safe and healthy work environment.  By increasing the safety practices, we allow our employees to focus on the quality of their work.  Contact us to hear more about our dermatology pathology lab service in Dallas, TX and how we can help your medical facility today.