Risk assessment

We are used to hearing the term risk assessment in business and in our financial dealings with individuals and organizations, but we need to pro-actively look at the risks we are prepared to allow and those that we will not allow when it comes to MRSA.

It does not matter if you are a parent, a school manager, a restaurateur, a coach, a manager of a leisure facility or a pet owner, we run the risk of an outbreak of MRSA in our home, or facility. It means embarrassment as a parent, and a loss of revenue for the facility. Over and over again I hear of there being an outbreak of MRSA somewhere and the whole facility is then deep-cleaned. When the deep-clean is over then the management go on to the next urgent issue. We need to assess the risks for our facility and then deal with them on an on-going basis.

Most of this will be common sense, but some of it will mean a radical rethink of how you run your job or your life.

* Soap must never run out.
* If you use liquid soap, the dispensers must be disposed of and not refilled.
* If you use bars of soap then replace with liquid.
* Do not use cloth towels, use air dryers or paper towels
* Never let the paper towels bin overflow
* Regularly disinfect the door handles as you enter and leave the toilets, disinfect the taps and the lavatory flush handles.
* Never run out of toilet paper.

So look at your home and business premises with a view of making sure that no-one will ever get MRSA from even a fleeting visit here. Only when everyone is looking for the problem and keeping on top of this issue will it become safe for us, our children and our customers. MRSA will not go away for the foreseeable future and so we must make sure that wherever we go in our home, office, factory, town, city, state, or country, we have done all we can to be aware and to stop the spread of MRSA.

You get the message. MRSA must never have the opportunity to build up and spread in your facility as it will kill you, your child, or one of your customers. One catch phrase from a UK radio show of many years ago was “You’ll be sorry” and if we don’t all work to stop being infected then someone will be and that someone could die.