Laboratory Self-Inspection: Using a Checklist for Safety and Health Audits

Abstract

Objective: To help readers gain an understanding of the laboratory professional’s role in the safety and health self-inspection process, the contents of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)’s Laboratory Safety Guidance document, the purpose of selfinspection, and essential design elements that should be included in a safety checklist. The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 gives laboratory workers the legal right to a safe workplace. Quality assessment (QA) is a requirement for clinical laboratories under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA) for evaluating all facets of the laboratory’s technical and nontechnical operations. Most clinical laboratory accreditation programs include safety as part of QA and promote the use of checklists. An effective self-inspection program engages laboratory staff to participate in the QA process with an easy-to-use, concise checklist. This list is used to verify whether safety equipment, standards, and practices required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), other applicable regulatory agencies, and institutional policies are available and observed to be in use in the workplace. I present herein a report about a laboratory self-inspection program for a university-based biomedical research laboratory; this program can easily be adapted for use in a clinical laboratory.