LOri asks:
 
<<I am looking for  any "Jacho" friendly guidelines appropriate for the unit=
I=20
work at and  it seems that there really none.>>


 
JCAHO has NO guidelines, rules or  regulations about the storage of 
breastmilk.  They defer to the CDC and  OSHA about that.


<<I know that breastmilk needs to be at certain temperatures.  But apart fro=
m=20
that,  I can not find any real guidelines.   I have already reviewed the=20=

guidelines for milk banks=20

Does  the milk need to be in a refrigerator dedicated yo milk storage  only=
?=20=20
Does there need to be a "biohazard" sticker on the frige  (one hospital=20=

poicly I ran across stated this)?=20>>
 
 
Absolutely NOT!!!  I recently  received a couple of question about this, and 
wrote directly to JCAHO.   Their response (dated 1/31/06):
 
"The Joint Commission standards do  not address labeling of breast milk [sic] 
as a biohazard.  In this instance  the Joint COmmission would defer to OSHA, 
and they quote a letter from December  14, 1992 which states, "Breast milk is 
not included in the standard's definition  of "other potentially infectious 
materials."  
 
You may get an individual inspector  who asks about storage of breastmilk, 
but that isn't in the JCAHO  guidelines.  In fact, if you go to the JACHO 
website and put in breast milk  -- there are 7 pages.  6 refer to the breast and one 
refers to milk.   There is not a single document that puts both words into 
one document.   Nothing is found when you put in breastmilk.  
 
Hope that helps  somewhat.




(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") Jan Barger, RN, MA,  IBCLC
ILCA's Liaison to the Joint Commission

_Lactation Education  Consultants_ 
(http://www.lactationeducationconsultants.com/)  
_My Mother of the Bride  Blog_ (http://www.motherofbridebyjan.blogspot.com/)  
_Torrey's  Blog_ (http://www.marriedcouplebytorrey.blogspot.com/)  






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