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A P R I L 2 0 1 4 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
W
ould you describe your facility as latex-free? I'd
probably need just a few minutes inside your
ORs to prove otherwise. I bet I'd find a loose
rubber band lying around or some surgical sup-
ply that you'd be surprised to know contains
latex. So while it's nearly impossible to be truly latex-free, you can
and should certainly strive to be latex-safe. When you can say that
you're latex-safe, it means you do your best to rid your facility of
latex-containing products. Here are 5 steps you can take today.
1.Treat all patients as if they have a latex aller-
gy. The continuity of practice is critical. You never know what aller-
gies patients are walking in with, and sometimes they don't know, so
don't assume anything. A good rule-of-thumb: Assume every patient
(and staff member) who walks through your doors has a latex allergy.
If you standardize and treat everybody the same way, you'll have less
opportunity for safety fallout.
2. Take a complete inventory. Look beyond just what
you consider clinical products, and keep an eye out for outliers. For
example, if you're putting an armband on a patient, it may have latex
on it. Maybe that's something you don't think about, because an arm-
band isn't typically considered a clinical product. Another example: if
you have a Jackson-Pratt Drain and use an elastic wrap to hold it
against something, that elastic could contain latex. It's these little
things patients come in contact with that you can't forget about.
L A T E X A L L E R G I E S
Rather than trying to rid your facility of latex
(hint: you can't), treat all your staff and patients
as if they have a latex allergy.
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