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scrub nurse, who was wearing clogs, tripped on the floor socket and fell, suffer-
ing a broken finger that required surgery. The facility installed new floor outlets
and also enforced the 'no slip-on clogs' rule and reminded staff that all footwear
must have an enclosed heel. Keep in mind that the foot's natural swing during a
normal walking gait will hit obstacles higher than ¼ inch off the ground.
• During an arthroscopy case, the floor became saturated and a nurse slipped,
hitting her head.
A simple solution
The solution to many of your tripping problems? In a word: booms. Whether
ceiling- or floor-mounted, booms keep your floors free of tangled cords. The
power cables for instruments or other devices installed on a boom's arms or
shelves are threaded through the unit, not draped across the room. If there's
additional equipment to plug in, outlets built into the boom unit provide closer
power sources than the edges of the room. Plus, booms free up the space that
would otherwise be occupied by cumbersome equipment carts and towers
you'd have to push around and plug in.
When a couple staff members fell after tripping over a cord on the floor, one
facility invested in a wireless video tower, hung anesthesia cables from the
ceiling and secured cords on the floor with bright orange tape.
Keep floors dry
You of course also want to keep floors free of slipping hazards by cleaning spills
immediately and letting surfaces dry after mopping between cases. Still, slips
can happen. Myron E. Lawson, lead operating room assistant at Carolinas
Medical Center-NorthEast in Concord, N.C., tells the story of a circulator who
helped take a patient to the PACU. In the interim, the OR floor was mopped.
"He returned, not knowing the floor was wet," says Mr. Lawson. "As he rushed
in, he lost traction and fell."
Fluid runoff pools on the floor, especially during fluid-intensive cases, such
