Development and implementation of evidence-based laboratory safety management tools for a public health laboratory

Risk management in occupational safety: A systematic mapping

BACKGROUND

Occupational safety risk management is a systemic process capable of promoting technical engineering solutions, considering a wide range of predictable, unexpected and subjective factors related to accident occurrences. In Brazil, the behavior of managers in relation to risk management tends to be reactive, and facilitates access to information for crucial practical and academic purposes when it comes to changing the attitude of managers, so that their actions become increasingly more proactive.

OBJECTIVE

To identify, classify, analyze, and discuss the existing literature related to the topic, produced from 2008 to 2020, besides contributing to a broader understanding of risk management in occupational safety.

METHODS

We did a systematic literature mapping. The research process was documented starting by the planning stage. Afterwards, the focus was on research conduction and information synthesis.

RESULTS

Knowledge systematization and stratification about OHS risk management through various perspectives to identify, analyze and manage risks in the workplace. Were identified 37 tools for identifying and analyzing risks, management-related practices and future research trends.

CONCLUSIONS

The set of tools and management practices identified can be used as a support for decision making in the selection process of tools and practices to reduce risks and improve occupational safety. Also, the results can help target future research.

A Methodology for Dynamic Assessment of Laboratory Safety by SEM-SD

Lab safety problems have become an impeding factor that cannot be ignored in normal teaching and scientific research activities at colleges and universities. As the risk factors of lab accidents can be conceptualized as occurring at multiple levels, systematically improving and optimizing lab safety is the crucial route to accident prevention in labs. In this paper, a novel method that integrates a structural equation model (SEM) and system dynamics (SD) is presented to dynamically assess lab safety with the characteristics of insufficient data and uncertainty. On the basis of a questionnaire investigation, the SEM was utilized to determine the influencing factors on lab safety and acquire the path coefficients among these factors, which were embedded into the SD model as the weight of the influencing factors. An illustration was carried out to test and validate the proposed method, and a sensitivity analysis was also conducted to recognize variables contributing the most to the improvement of lab safety. The results demonstrated that the safety input of human and management subsystems is the most effective to improve the lab safety; meanwhile, “safety awareness”, “emergency ability”, “operation skills”, “safety culture” and “safety training” are the top five contributing factors, which can promote lab safety in the shortest time.

Development and Application of Computerized Risk Registry and Management Tool Based on FMEA and FRACAS for Total Testing Process

Background and Objectives: Risk management is considered an integral part of laboratory medicine to assure laboratory quality and patient safety. However, the concept of risk management is philosophical, so actually performing risk management in a clinical laboratory can be challenging. Therefore, we would like to develop a sustainable, practical system for continuous total laboratory risk management. Materials and Methods: This study was composed of two phases: the development phase in 2019 and the application phase in 2020. A concept flow diagram for the computerized risk registry and management tool (RRMT) was designed using the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) and the failure reporting, analysis, and corrective action system (FRACAS) methods. The failure stage was divided into six according to the testing sequence. We applied laboratory errors to this system over one year in 2020. The risk priority number (RPN) score was calculated by multiplying the severity of the failure mode, frequency (or probability) of occurrence, and detection difficulty. Results: 103 cases were reported to RRMT during one year. Among them, 32 cases (31.1%) were summarized using the FMEA method, and the remaining 71 cases (68.9%) were evaluated using the FRACAS method. There was no failure in the patient registration phase. Chemistry units accounted for the highest proportion of failure with 18 cases (17.5%), while urine test units accounted for the lowest portion of failure with two cases (1.9%). Conclusion: We developed and applied a practical computerized risk-management tool based on FMEA and FRACAS methods for the entire testing process. RRMT was useful to detect, evaluate, and report failures. This system might be a great example of a risk management system optimized for clinical laboratories.

Management of educational and scientific laboratory: new requirements and competences

The role of educational and scientific laboratories in the University environment has increased in recent eight years due to the transformation of education in the Russian Federation. New requirements to education, to the competencies that students acquire, the shift of the educational vector towards technological disciplines, the participation of Russian universities in the 5–100 project-all this makes it necessary to develop a new class of educational and scientific laboratories in Russian universities. At the same time, the requirements for the teaching staff of the Universities are changing new requirements for educational technologies are formulated. The implementation of the concept of University 2035, and in particular the emergence of the new National Technology Initiative (NTI) markets, such as: “Aeronet”, “Technet”, “Energynet” etc. imply the creation of a flexible model of education based on the individual learning trajectory. At the same time, the requirements for educational and scientific laboratories are changing ˗ today they must conduct research in various areas, respectively, laboratories, which imposes new requirements to the management of the laboratories and also to the format and laboratory equipment. It has been shown in the article that in the conditions of the educational environment transformation, the head of modern teaching and research laboratory must have a fundamentally new list of skills ˗ from the ability to plan and organize the scientific process, to managing the laboratory as a structural unit, which implies the presence of managerial skills.