This document provides a summary of best practice in relation to the process for using decontamination showers at SHED. The summary has been created to support staff during the Sunshine Hospital Emergency Department Redevelopment transition and early post-move period, and has been endorsed by the SHED Leadership Team.
Overview:
This QRG provides an overview of the SHED decontamination shower process. For further information, staff are to refer to action cards located in the Chemical, Biological and Radiological (CBR) Incidents Contingency Plan Document.
Applicability:
This QRG relates to all SHED clinical staff, Security and PSA staff.
Responsibility:
The Operations Manager Emergency Medicine, SHED NUM and SHED Medical Directors are responsible for ensuring that all ED staff are aware of the decontamination process.
Guideline/Process Details:
The decontamination shower process is an important process that provides patients presenting to the SHED with potential CBR exposure to be decontaminated and treated with expert care, while providing safety for staff.
Decontamination shower process:
- The Nurse in Charge (NIC), upon receiving notification or presentation of patient/s with CBR contamination, will redirect the patient/s or Ambulances to the Majorca street entrance (refer Appendix A: Decontamination shower paths of travel)
- The NIC will then instruct the PSA to set up decontamination shower privacy screens (refer to action card)
- NIC will direct staff to the disaster room were the CBR suits are located
- NIC will delegate staff to don the suits in the disaster room
- NIC will issue other staff with action cards (refer to CBR manual)
- Security to provide traffic/crowd control and other duties as per action card
- Triage Nurse will identify patients that require decontamination, and instruct them to walk through the showers
- PSA to provide blankets from the department and place them at the end of the showers, Cold Zone
- Registered Nurse assigned to the Hot Zone will triage arriving patients; non-contaminated, contaminated, ambulant, non-ambulant, male/female, symptomatic in order for decontamination
- Patients triaged as per Sieve/Sort method: immediate, delayed, minor, deceased and expectant
- Staff to ensure all potentially contaminated patients are ushered through decontamination corridor regardless of absence of obvious contamination
- Once all patients are decontaminated staff must rinse themselves before doffing the suits. Staff to follow doffing procedure in CBR manual
- PSA’s to clean all equipment and suits as per instructions in the CBR manual
- Security to provide key access back into the SHED
- Once a staff member has doffed the suit they require a medical check
- Once cleared medically, staff can resume duties
Supporting Documentation:
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Appendix A: Decontamination Showers Paths of Travel
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Appendix B: Decontamination Showers Hot to Cold pathway
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Document Governance
| Title: |
Decontamination Shower Process – SHED |
| Version: |
2.0 |
| Date Published: |
May, 2021 |
| Date of scheduled review: |
01/05/2022 |
| Author: |
Approver: |
| Fiona Pazsa |
SHED Leadership Team |
