PATIENT SAFETY

BIO HAZARD SAFETY

PPE

K.Kalpana.Msc(N)
Asst Prof
Bhaarath college of Nursing
 Patient safety
• Patient safety is fundamental to delivering quality essential health
services.
•  It aims to prevent and reduce risks, errors and harm that occur to
patients during provision of health care.
• To ensure successful implementation of patient safety strategies; clear
policies, leadership capacity, data to drive safety improvements,
skilled health care professionals and effective involvement of patients
in their care, are all needed.
 Sentinel Event
• The Joint Commission defines a sentinel event as an unexpected
occurrence involving death, serious physical or psychological injury.
The event can result in death, permanent harm, or severe, temporary
harm
E.G Surgery on the wrong individual or wrong body part
 Adverse Event
• An unexpected medical problem that happens during treatment
with a drug or other therapy. Adverse events may be mild, moderate,
or severe, and may be caused by something other than the drug or
therapy being given. Also called adverse effect.
patient safety situations causing most
concern.
• Medication errors 
• Health care-associated infections 
• Unsafe surgical care procedures
•  Unsafe injections practices
• Diagnostic errors 
• Unsafe transfusion practices 
• Radiation errors
• Sepsis 
• Venous thromboembolism (blood clots) 
Bio Hazard safety
WHAT ARE SOME BIOHAZARD
EXAMPLES?  
• Human blood and blood products. This includes items that have been
contaminated with blood and other body fluids or tissues that contain visible blood.
• Animal waste. Animal carcasses and body parts, or any bedding material used by
animals that are known to be infected with pathogenic organisms.
• Human body fluids. Semen, cerebrospinal fluid, pleural fluid, vaginal secretions,
pericardial fluid, amniotic fluid, saliva, and peritoneal fluid.
• Microbiological wastes. Common in laboratory settings, examples of
microbiological wastes include specimen cultures, disposable culture dishes,
discarded viruses, and devices used to transfer or mix cultures.
• Pathological waste. Unfixed human tissue (excluding skin), waste biopsy materials,
and anatomical parts from medical procedures or autopsies.
• Sharps waste. Needles, glass slides and cover slips, scalpels, and IV tubing that has
the needle attached.
HOW CAN I PROTECT MYSELF FROM BIOHAZARDS IN THE
WORKPLACE?
• Mandatory Hepatitis B vaccinations
• Treating each situation as potentially dangerous. Don’t ever assume a
situation involving biohazards will be fine to respond to without
proper precautions.
• Washing your hands frequently with warm water and soap.
• Wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) when responding to
situations involving biohazards. These can include gloves, facemasks
and shields, respirators, aprons, special protective eyewear, and full
body gowns or suits.
• Utilizing proper disposal methods including labeled biohazard bags or
containers.
• Reporting all incidents to your supervisor.
Standard Rules for Working with
Microbes
• Only trained individuals may enter lab
• Always wear lab coats and safety glasses
• Wash hands after working with organisms and before leaving lab
• No eating, drinking, smoking
• Avoid hand to mouth or eye contact
• No mouth pipetting
• Minimize aerosol production
• Work on clean hard benchtop and ALWAYS keep disinfectant handy
• Decontaminate workspace and waste before disposing
Containment is the separation of the worker from the
biohazard in one of several ways. This separation controls
the risks associated with the particular biohazard.
There are mainly five technology options available for the treatment of
bio-medical waste. They can be grouped as follows.
• Chemical processes
• Thermal processes
• Mechanical processes
• Irradiation processes
• Biological processes
Chemical processes
These processes use chemicals that act as disinfectants.
Sodium hypochlorite, dissolved chlorine dioxide, peracetic acid,
hydrogen peroxide, dry inorganic chemical and ozone are examples of
such chemicals. Most chemical processes are water-intensive and
require neutralising agents.
Thermal processes
 Autoclaving is a low heat thermal process and it uses steam for
disinfection of waste. Autoclaves are of two types depending on the
method they use for removal of air pockets. They are gravity flow
autoclave and vacuum autoclave.Microwaving
Mechanical processes
Microwaving is a process which disinfects the waste by moist heat and
steam generated by microwave energy.
Mechanical Processes
• Compaction - used to reduce the volume of the waste

• Shredding - used to destroy plastic and paper waste to prevent their reuse. Only the
disinfected waste can be used in a shredder.
Irradiation processes
• In these processes, wastes are exposed to ultraviolet or ionizing radiation in an enclosed
chamber. These systems require post shredding to render the waste unrecognizable.
Biological processes
• Biological enzymes are used for treating medical waste. It is claimed that biological
reactions will not only decontaminate the waste but also cause the destruction of all the
organic constituents so that only plastics, glass, and other inert will remain in the
residues.
Deep Burial
• A pit or trench should be dug about 2 m deep. It should be half filled
with waste, and then covered with lime within 50 cm of the surface,
before filling the rest of the pit with soil.
• BIOHAZARD SAFETY LEVELS WITH EXAMPLES
• There are 4 levels of biohazards, according to the Center
for Disease Control:  
• Biohazard Level 1: Agents that pose minimal threat to humans and the
environment. Examples include E. coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Naegleria
gruberi.
• Biohazard Level 2: Agents that can cause severe illness in humans and
are transmitted through direct contact with infected material. Examples
include HIV, hepatitis B, and salmonella.
• Biohazard Level 3: Pathogens that can become airborne and cause
serious diseases. Examples include tuberculosis .
• Biohazard Level 4: Pathogens that pose a high risk of life-threatening
disease for which there are no treatments. Examples include the Ebola
virus and Lassa virus.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
 Evaluation
1.Identify Patient safety indicators

a) Medication errors 
b) Health care-associated infections 
c) Unsafe surgical care procedures
d) All of the above

2.Who is responsible for patient safety?

a. Doctor b. Nurse C. Everyone D. Patients

3.An Adverse Event in health care is an incident in which a patient is harmed.

a. True b. False
4.Identify the biohazard material
a. Unused syringe
b. Cotton stained with patients blood
c. B.P apparatus
d. All of the above

5.PPE stands for __________