reminded that such preps need to dry for at least 3 minutes.
Up in flames
Then a clinician is randomly selected from the crowd, and everyone
gets a dramatic demonstration of how outpatients can quickly
become inpatients as a result of impatience. After about 90 seconds of
drying time has elapsed, the clinician directs a flame toward the prep,
and whoosh, up goes Bruce in flames — flames that rapidly spread
across his entire body.
His job done and the point made, Bruce — affectionately named
after Bruce Kupper, the president and CEO of Medarva Healthcare
and an outspoken safety advocate — is snuffed out and cooled off,
before going back into storage to wait for the following year's demon-
stration.
"So far, he's survived," says Mr. Stanford, the surgery center's direc-
tor of clinical services. "But he's showing the effects. We're probably
going to have to replace him in a few years."
But the char marks on Bruce are a badge of honor, a testament to
the impact he's having. "When a clinician sees how easily a patient's
skin can be ignited, and sees the flames on the body, it leaves an
impression that this is something they can't afford to take lightly,"
says Mr. Stanford. "Fire in the OR can easily be prevented and this
ensures that no mistakes take place."
More than prep
Since skin preps are only one kind of fire hazard, the trainers are also
careful to cover other important aspects of fire safety, including a
demonstration of how oxygen feeds fire, and how easily fire can
engulf and even melt an oxygen tube. And drapes, they point out, can
both lengthen the drying process, and obscure a fire until it's too late
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