With only three staff members to carry out an extensive range of skilled and professional service at FV Hospital, the Environmental Safety Team have to work extremely diligently to fulfil the job requirements. Even so, through their youthfulness, vibrancy, and knowledge ably guided by the proficient leadership of Mr Monojit Mitra (Facility and Biomedical Director), the team’s contribution is the indispensable “glue” that hold together the safety procedures.

Carefulness in every single thing

Although the minor force, the scope of work they conduct is extremely repetitive, necessitating approaches utilising both “hard ” (technical) and “soft” (education, training) methods. In either case, discretion is always an absolute requirement as even minor subjectivity at work might have serious consequences later on.

Checking emergency response equipment and tools necessitates extreme vigilance. 

Each day, Mr Pham Tan Phat (Environmental Safety Team Leader) evaluates the assigned tasks and implements them as usual. Mr Phat said: “Tasks are organised by year, by quarter, then broken down by month and week. Considering FV scale of development, the team’s domain of activity is extensive and integrated within the overall operation of the hospital“. Concerning the scope of work, the environmental safety team are responsible for the management, inspection, supervision and guidance over four sectors: fire safety; hazardous materials and waste management; environmental oversight, and occupational safety and health.

The members of the environmental safety team carry out three primary categories for each section, including:

• inspecting and monitoring the current status in all departments and operations
• training and guiding the departments as well as periodical works
• measuring indicators of workplace environmental safety (components like air, sound, light, exhaust (air and water), water source, and ergonomics)

Mr Vo Thanh Long is supervising the operation of the wastewater treatment plant

Mr Phat had a busy day today checking several safety aspects at the Nuclear Medicine Department. Every month, safety critical items such as eyewash bottles, portable fire extinguishers, etc, need to be examined to ensure their safety for operation. Fire Extinguishers are critical, being the first line of defence should a fire happen.  FV Hospital has more than 300 of them in many various types.

Ensuring fire safety is one of the primary objectives of the Environmental Safety Team

Across hospitals, in some departments, the hospital has installed a whole body shower (decontamination shower). The purpose of these showers is to wash the body, when accidentally; hazardous materials / chemicals are splashed on the body. It is the responsibility of Mr Phat’s team to routinely check the functionality of all the shower stations, (Nuclear Medicine, Laboratory and Accident & Emergency Department). Mr Phat explained: “Our job is to ensure that when used, these devices meet safety requirements and work perfectly….” Hence, the status of the lever, water flow from the shower and the area surrounding the shower are routinely checked.

Spill kits are inspected periodically by department staff members and cross-monitored from the Environmental Safety Team.

On a daily basis, his team check the suitability and functionality of numerous other equipment and tools in accordance with the safety guidance of the hospital, such as eyewash bottles, flammable cabinets, exit lights, flashlights for emergencies in ladders and exits, waste sorting bins, water samples, wastewater, air emission, air surrounding, air microbiology levels in various areas. All aspects of the safety cycle need to be checked routinely by them. It’s like the doctors checking the vital signs of a patient.

Learning to enhance safety is interesting

The three members of the team work together and alone in different areas of the hospital according to the schedule and requirements of the job as it is a natural process of their work.

This afternoon, for instance, while Mr Phat was performing a safety check of fire exit doors in a certain area, his two other colleagues were re-training and conducting a practice session on response to hazardous materials spill (CODE YELLOW); fire safety drill (CODE RED) in two separate departments.

Ms Tran Bao Tran (Occupational Health – Safety Officer), the team’s newest member, recently completed an environmental safety training session. She shared: “It’s similarly my job to provide instruction for occupational safety like I used to do before, but in hospital operations, there are many new things that are valuable to learn”. Ms Tran further added that she appreciates working, learning new things, and being able to put her professional expertise into practice at FV Hospital. However, the “new things” require information and documentation challenges. Fortunately, the Team has guidance and support from other members in the Facility and Biomedical Department, especially from the director, Mr Monojit Mitra.

Ms Bao Tran coaching employees on how to handle spills and pour chemicals.

Concerning the Team’s activities during the construction phase of H Building, the other member of the Team, Vo Thanh Long (Environmental Safety Officer), highlighted, “There will be more stringent requirements in the construction control activities to ensure environmental safety of contractors. As a result, the team will constantly monitor, verify, evaluate, and update our policies in order to support them”.

FV provides construction and installation contractor’s professional safety training.

Currently, the Environmental Safety Team is implementing Vietnamese legal safety and environmental regulations. Furthermore, in order to establish an FV standard, the Department of Facility and Biomedical evaluates real-life scenarios and experiences from similar healthcare facilities. All departments collaborate to guarantee the safety of the entire hospital. The Environmental Safety Team serves as the “link in the chain” that connects all of the safety requirements. That is truly unique.

The team’s constituents are such that all the members are experienced with expertise in their role and job type that they carry out on a daily basis. The challenges of working in a healthcare environment and more specifically in a triple accredited Joint Commission International hospital are many and under the guidance of the senior member of the department and with cooperation and coordination from the entire hospital staff the team will excel and scores heavily in all future endeavours.