In the era of Covid-19, it’s more important than ever to ensure your workplace is kept safe, sanitised and secure. This means that medical supplies, body temperature thermometers, medical gloves, face masks, and other PPE should be on hand and easy to locate when required.
PPE signage, especially in high risk environments such as clinics, nursing homes, and hospitals needs to be clearly visible and easy to access for everyone, especially staff. Having clearly labelled medical products, not only reduces the risk for staff and visitors, but also shows outsiders that your establishment is serious about health and safety. In many countries proper signage for PPE and other medical gear is now being legislated to be necessary at any workplace. These laws aim to keep staff and clientele safe from the risk of getting sick, as much as possible.
One PPE/medical supplies distributor we spoke with – MediSupply Warehouse – claims that medical signage is being requested by more and more of their clients. “Originally there was a lot of resistance to new safety laws being implemented,” Erin, a spokesperson for the company said. “Businesses have been suffering for so long now because of the lock-downs, so more and more business owners are willing to throw up a few signs and make it look like they’re doing their part, just so they can re-open and start operating as normal again.”
Others in the industry seemed to agree. “A lot of people don’t agree with how the whole situation has been managed. It’s becoming clear that the lock-downs didn’t and don’t work, but if putting up a few signs and scanning people’s temperature upon entry means businesses can operate again, most people will go along with it,” said a spokesperson for Think Pharmacy Group in Australia.
There are of course, others who take the opposite stand and are going to extreme measures to protect themselves and their staff from infection. One coffee shop in Pennsylvania has gone so far as to have a special “decontamination” room for customers as they enter. They have also set up a special cabinet with clearly labelled signs for each individual type of PPE, and even different cabinets for the different types of gloves on hand.
This sort of caution – which seems a bit over the top to many – shouldn’t be necessary for regular businesses. It is unlikely the typical coffee shop owner wants to go to such an extent, and at such expense, to renovate their store in such a manner. It’s always good to be careful, but taking it to such extremes may have the opposite of the desired effect.
More and more studies show, that antibacterial gels can actually cause harm when used excessively for example. While offering better access to PPE in the workplace doesn’t hurt anyone, other “protective” measures such as over the top use of antibacterial agents can actually cause problems for people’s immune systems down the line. We all need to keep our health in mind during these times, it’s not just about protection, but prevention as well.
