Any Guidelines on Locker roos in decontam

[Craig Nitschke]

Hello, I was notified today that our facility wants to take our locker room and restroom area away from our decontan area and make it into some sort of storage area. I think this is a bad idea. Starters my staff will bo longer have a lace to change. The arguement is given that Central Supply has a locker room available we can use, but it is not connected to Sterile Processing. My concern is that if you are in decontam and happen to have strike through your PPE there is no where convenient place to to change without having to walk through a sterile supply area or through an uncontrolled hallway, or simply have a place to wash your hands utilizing the decontam sink... Anyone know of any guidelines?

[cpdguy]

Good Questions. Go to ST 35 go to Annex A section they show an interchange area for the Decontma area in a sample design, this might support your point. Also read over the section on work flow an PPE and section 3. i would suggest the functional work areas should be designed accordingly, taking into account the engineering controls required by OSHA. I would look at OSHA also for some help.

Good Luck, I agree with you fight to keep this space. It is needed for your staff.

[sonny1388]

Somebody would have to press pretty hard for me to okay not having a clean sink to wash your hands in between Decontam and the Sterile side. Washing in Decontam defeats the purpose, and anywhere else means you are tracking whatever you may have on your hands.