Medical laboratory services are essential to a healthy population and therefore must meet the needs of all patients and the clinical personnel responsible for accurate diagnosis and treatment of those persons. Management is encouraged to implement Standards to ensure the efficient and effective functioning of medical laboratory facilities.
In 2009, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) first adopted the International Standard ISO 15190 – Medical laboratories — Requirements for safety as a Guyana Standard GYS 475 – Medical laboratories — Requirements for safety. This year, the latest publication of this standard was adopted to better meet the needs of an evolving health sector.
The Standard specifies requirements to establish and maintain a safe working environment in a medical laboratory. It addresses the design of the facility to ensure safety, security of materials, practices and controls to reduce loss or misuse of resources. Key among requirements of the standard is the need for hazard identification and risk assessment to identify threats that exist or could arise within the laboratory or result from its activities. This section of the document pointed out that while there can never be a total absence of risk in a medical laboratory, the aim is to decrease the risk as much as possible.
Precautions to take include engineering controls in the form of proper ventilation, biological safety cabinets, appropriate disposal containers and self-sheathing needles among others, and administrative controls in the form of training, processes, rules and safe work procedures.
The Standard’s management requirements noted that there should be detailed instructions concerning hazard identification, signs/symptoms of exposure, risk assessment and periodic review of procedures to ensure they remain fit for purpose.
Across the health sector, the likelihood of cross-contamination is often raised. The GYS 475 Standard specifies the establishment of validated procedures to ensure that appropriate methods for decontamination and inactivation are implemented effectively. Appropriate decontamination is required after routine work or in emergency situations.
Other topics addressed include chemical classification and labelling, oxidising and corrosive materials, biological spills, chemical spills and waste, electrical equipment, emergency preparedness and response, fire safety, protective clothing in the laboratory, waste disposal and requirements for a safety audit.
While this document is intended for use throughout the currently recognised disciplines of medical laboratory services, other services and disciplines can find it useful and appropriate. However, medical laboratories handling human pathogens requiring containment levels 3 and 4 will need to meet additional requirements to ensure safety.
Managers of medical laboratories are urged to acquire a copy of the Guyana Standard GYS 475 – Medical laboratories — Requirements for safety and implement the requirements of the standard to ensure a safer working environment for their staff and visitors.
For further information, please contact the GNBS on telephone numbers: 219-0069, 219-0065, 219-0062 or visit the GNBS Website: www. gnbsgy.org.
