Lifesaving Medical Devices
When first aid emergencies occur, there’s not a moment to lose to locate the right medical equipment and personnel. Safety equipment like stretchers, first aid stations and automated external defibrillators all need to be clearly “signed” so they can easily be found – no matter where a person is in your facility. Lives are on the line; people are injured and people suddenly become ill, suffer heart attacks, and the like. It’s critical your facility risk management plan carefully considers the use of signs to locate lifesaving first aid and emergency equipment so it can easily be found in crisis situations.
There is another purpose behind the need for a well thought out installation strategy for your company’s emergency equipment signs, and it is directly linked to lawsuits. Those responsible for specifying and locating your facility’s emergency equipment location signs need to be aware of a new form of premises liability taking hold in the U.S.: the "failure to plan."
Universally Recognized Symbols Point the Way
The use of internationally standardized graphical symbols for first aid and emergency equipment signs cannot be over stressed. Because Clarion Safety has been helping to lead the world in this area by being directly involved in the writing of the ISO standards related to graphical symbols and safety signs, we understand how these equipment location sign systems are meant to be designed and installed.
When performing a safety equipment location sign survey in your company, the perspective you must have is to imagine yourself in a variety of risk situations at each location on your premises such as:
- Someone has had a heart attack and you need to find an AED device immediately.
- A traumatic accident has occurred involving one of your employees and you need to find medical assistance, first aid supplies and a stretcher.
- You need to locate an emergency phone to call for help.
We have the signs to address all of these situations – and more. One important aspect when planning safety equipment location signs is the need to find this equipment at any time. That’s one reason why we highly recommend ordering our safety-grade photoluminescent (glow-in-the-dark) versions of these signs – as they will be able to be seen in dark, power-off conditions. Such conditions can happen when tornados, earthquakes and blackouts occur. Since these are also times when you need to locate emergency equipment, installing the photoluminescent material versions of these signs make sense.
Another important fact to consider is that emergency equipment often needs to be located from anywhere in your facility. This is why we recommend that you post one sign above the equipment and then install directional versions of the same sign (which point towards the direction to the equipment) wherever people cannot actually see the safety sign located above the equipment. When different safety equipment locations can be pointed to from a single spot, such as at a “T” intersection in a hallway, we can customize a sign for you that has multiple safety equipment location symbols on it and arrows pointing the appropriate directions.
OSHA on Safety Equipment Availability
The OSHA regulation for first aid and emergency equipment signs reads as follows:
1910.151 B In the absence of an infirmary, clinic, or hospital in near proximity to the workplace which is used for the treatment of all injured employees, a person or persons shall be adequately trained to render first aid. Adequate first aid supplies shall be readily available.
