Hospital Theatres - Fixed Alarms

[Mike]

Is anyone aware of any processes in place for fixed alarms (false alarms) that may occur in a Hospital theatre?
Considerations have to be given to the fact that it is a sterile area...... and firefighters arnt sterile (generally)!


Have some thoughts, but not enough time to chat about them at the moment.....

Thoughts?

[medevac]

hmmm...

well the priority is for us to protect life and property....
so i dont really think we need to worry about it. obviously if theyre was actually a fire, it wouldnt matter how dirty your boots were(for instance), but maybe some thought about making as little impact as possible would be necessary if it was a false alarm and just needed to be investigated...

on the other hand though... in theory we should be wearign BA and dragging a charged hosline to investigate every fixed alarm we  go to....

[Mike]

If there was a fire the question would not have to be asked. Absolutely no doubt there. How to make minimal impact in a sterile area I guess is the main question, after all we still have to do the job.

[medevac]

dont touch anything your not meant too, lol...

[Mike]

yeah yeah, lol, some things are obvious!!! 

[rescue5271]

This is a good one,if they are operating we remove our boots and part of our turnout gear jacket and send one person in only to look and report,but I have found that most operating theatres have very high standard fire detection and that false alarms in there are very rare.. The other point is to do some pre planning with the hospital that way you know what you can and cant do.........

[canman]

If you were to have a fire in or around the theatre area then you wouldn't give it a second thought, as Medevac mentioned priority is for us to protect life and property....(common sense prevailing of course)

As for a general alarm where the circuit your investigating covers a theatre area or the theatre itself you can always utilize the staff to tell you whether the smoke or thermal detector has a light lit up on it. No need to go trampling through the area if its unnecessary.

[Firefrog]

correct, When responding to an alarm it's part of the Aus Standard which encourages occupants and especially members of the emergency control organisation (of the hospital) to establish the nature of the alarm. No need at all for Firies to enter a theatre if capable staff can advise on detector location and any probable cause, if any.

[oz fire]

I would imagine that the theaters are cleaned very frequently and hence if a fire fighter had to enter (when the theater was not in use) that it would be cleaned and sterilised before the next procedure.

I would imagine they would have internal procedures as A/H there are rarely enough staff to look after patients let alone guide and work with fireis who are searching a circuit for an activated head!