Safety Audit - Doctor's Office - Unit 3 Health and Social Care task 4

by ellyharvey98gmailcom (student)

Doctor’s Office

SCENE DESCRIPTION:

In the doctor’s office there is his main desk, a bed with a long floor-length curtain around it, a shelf, a coat rack with lots of things hanging on it, a low table, a cupboard, and a lamp plugged in from across the room.

Potential hazards in this room include the curtain around the bed draping along the floor, the shelf having sample pots of patients’ bodily fluids stored on it, the coat rack being heavily loaded on one side, the low table having a pack of expired pills on it, the cupboard not having child safety locks on it, and the wire from the lamp trailing across the middle of the room.

Around the bed there is a privacy curtain that can be pulled across to separate the bed from the rest of the room. The length of this curtain is too long and the bottom 4 inches drape along the floor, causing a tripping hazard. This hazard is especially a risk to children, the elderly, and those with vision impairments.

On the shelf on the wall of the Doctor’s office there are sample pots of patients’ bodily fluids (blood, saliva, urine etc.) that are waiting to be sent off for lab testing. This is not only unappealing for patients in the room to look at, it is also a breach of confidentiality between the doctor and the patient whose samples they are, since each sample has a label on with the patient’s medical details on it. The samples, if knocked over and opened, can cause a health risk too, especially to children.

There is a coat rack near the door of the Doctor’s office, which is heavily loaded on one side, making it unbalanced and likely to fall on a patient or the doctor. This could knock an elderly person, who isn’t completely balanced over, or fall on a small child and hit them in the head and seriously injure them.

There is a low table in the room, that is not only a tripping hazard, but the doctor uses it to store unused or expired packets of pills on, before he puts them in the bin. Anyone could pick these pills up and take them; possibly causing serious damage to their body, especially if a child took them.

The cupboard in the room that contains lots of medical items such as needles, medicines, samples etc. inside is floor-level and does not have any child safety features, such as child locks. This means that a child could easily open the cupboard and harm themselves with anything inside.

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There is a lamp in the middle of the room which is plugged in at the wall, leaving the wire loose across the floor causing a tripping hazard for anyone who might not notice the lead, as it is a similar colour to the carpet, and people wouldn’t expect it to be there.

INITIAL ASSESSMENT:

Firstly, any children who ingest any of the pills that are kept on the low tables should have an ambulance called immediately for them.

Secondly, an ambulance should be called for anyone who comes into contact with any of the samples kept on the doctor’s ...

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INITIAL ASSESSMENT:

Firstly, any children who ingest any of the pills that are kept on the low tables should have an ambulance called immediately for them.

Secondly, an ambulance should be called for anyone who comes into contact with any of the samples kept on the doctor’s shelf, and if the contact is with the skin, the affected area should be rinsed under clean, cool running water.

Thirdly, anyone who ingests anything from the cupboard, or comes into contact with the needles should have an ambulance called and the cupboard should be locked.

Then, anyone who the coat rack falls over onto should be seen by a first aider, or have an ambulance called if there is a suspected head, neck, or spinal injury.

Next, the curtain should be kept tucked to the side when not in use, and doctors should warn patients that it drapes along the floor.

Lastly, the wire from the lamp should be duct taped to the floor temporarily, until a replacement lamp can be bought, and patients should be warned of the wire.

MAKE AREA SAFE:

To reduce the risk of anyone ingesting the medicine on the tale, the pills need to be disposed of in the proper way as soon as they expire, and not kept in view or in reach of any patients or their children.

To reduce the risk of children being contaminated from the samples, the samples need to be stored out of sight, in a locked cupboard, to ensure no confidentiality is broken and that no one, especially children, can access them.

The risk of the needles and samples in the unlocked cupboard can be reduced by either putting child locks on the cupboard, or getting an actual lock that can only be opened with the doctor’s key.

To reduce the risk of people being hurt by the coat rack, the coat rack should be secured to a wall, in case it gets overloaded on one side, which will keep it from falling over. The doctor should also make sure that if it is being used, that the load is balanced, and not one-sided.

To reduce this risk of the long curtain, the curtain needs to be replaced with one of suitable length; until then, it should be tucked away when not in use.

To reduce the risk of the lamp, it needs to be moved closer to the plug socket so that there isn’t a wire across the floor, and patients warned of the hazard.

TREATMENT PRIORITIES AND OUTLINE:

Pills, samples, cupboard, coat rack, curtain, lamp

Firstly, all the pills should be removed from the table and disposed of in the proper way. An ambulance should be called if anyone has ingested any of the expired medicine and they should be waited with by the first aider.

Secondly, an ambulance should be called for anyone who ingests any samples. Any clothing or jewellery contaminated by the sample should be removed as this could cause infection.

Thirdly, anyone who comes into contact with the needles from the unlocked cupboard should have the wounds cleaner and steriled, then taken to hospital to check if they have contracted any diseases from the needles.

Next, anyone who has the coat rack fall on them should be taken to A&E or have an ambulance called for them, depending on the severity of the injury . The person could have concussion from falling and should be taken to hospital immediately as the symptoms of concussions sometimes take a while to appear. If the person cannot easily stand up on their own, they should not be moved, in case any neck or spinal injuries are worsened, and an ambulance should be called.

Then, anyone who trips over the curtain or the lamp wire should be seen by a first aider and have any injuries seen to and cleaned. If the fall is very bad then an ambulance should be called. If they are okay to stand up off of the floor and move on their own, they should be sat in a chair and put as little weight as possible on the injured areas, and have ice applied to any injuries. If necessary, they should be taken to hospital to have their injuries looked at properly. If the person cannot easily stand up on their own, they should not be moved, in case any neck or spinal injuries are worsened, and an ambulance should be called.

HELP REQUESTED/RECEIVED/DEPLOYED:

An ambulance would be required for anyone who ingests the pills left on the table.

A first aider and/or ambulance would need to be requested for anyone who comes into contact with the samples on the shelf, depending on the severity (e.g. a fist aider would only be needed if the sample touches the patient's skin, but an ambulance would need to be called if the patient swallowed any of the samples).

An ambulance and/or someone to take the patient to hospital would be required for someone who is injured by the needles in the unlocked cupboard.

The person who the coat rack has fallen on will either need to be seen by a first aider if the hit is minor, or an ambulance with a team of paramedics if the hit is severe, for example if it knocked the patient over and they hit their head or cut themselves.

An ambulance or first aider would be required for anyone who has tripped on the curtain on the floor and hurt themselves.

An ambulance or first aider would be required for the person who has tripped over the lamp wire, depending on the severity of the fall.

WAYS TO MAINTAIN RESPECT AND DIGNITY:

The person being seen by a first aider or ambulance team about the pills should be taken into a different room to avoid people crowding around and being nosey, so as to respect their privacy and dignity.

The person who has come into contact with the samples should have their dignity and respect maintained; the person treating/helping them should not alert anyone who does not need to know about the incident to avoid unnecessary alarm.

The person who has been injured by the needle(s) in the unlocked cupboard should have their condition kept private, and only people in the building who need to know should be told, to maintain dignity, confidentiality and respect.

The person who has been hit by the coat rack should not be moved in case any injuries are worsened; therefore members of staff should close the doors to the doctor's office, so that people walking past cannot look in.

The person who has fallen over on the curtain on the floor should be covered by a blanket if their falling position has caused any of their clothing to expose their body, to preserve their dignity and privacy, and a couple of staff members should sit with them to help try and cover the person from the view of anyone else until help arrives.

The person who has tripped over the lamp wire should be sat in a private room, if they can get up, if not the door of the doctor's office should be closed and only people who need to be in the room should be in the room.

REPORTING/FOLLOW UP:

All of the staff should be given health and safety training and hazardous chemicals training and given disposal bins to put unused/expired pills in to keep them out of reach of people, especially children.

The samples should be kept off of the shelf, in a different, locked room to avoid the risk of anyone coming into contact with the samples, or breaching confidentiality of whose samples are whose.

All the hazardous substances in the cupboard should have a lock placed on the cupboard and only people who need to access the substances should have access to this lock. A senior member of staff should regularly check this cupboard, that it is locked and safe.

The coat rack needs to be secured to the wall to ensure it doesn’t topple over on top of anyone and causes an injury. The bracket securing it needs to be regularly checked so that it doesn't become loose without warning.

The curtain needs to be replaced with one of suitable length, and until then patients need to be warned about the hazard, and have it tucked away when not in use.

The lamp needs to be moved to where there is a plug socket close by and the wire will not be draped across the floor.