DESERET SurgiMed HOSPITAL

Nat’l Highway, Kabacan, North Cotabato

Contact no. (064) 248 24 94/ email add: deseretsurgimed@gmail.com

Area: Nurse supervisor’s office Document code # : _________________

Process owner: Nurses, Physician, Orderly Revision #.:_______________________
Title: POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ON DISPOSITION Effectivity Date: August 29, 2017
OF DEAD BODIES WITH DANGEROUS Number of Pages: 2
COMMUNICABLE DISEASE.

I. PURPOSE:
To ensure that there is proper infection control measures in handling dead
bodies to avoid transmission of infection towards staff and family members.

II. POLICY AND PROCEDURE:

1. Personal care of the service user after death (formally known as last offices)
should honor the spiritual or cultural wishes of the deceased person.
However if the service user has been in contact or has been diagnosed as
an infection risk certain standard precautions are required to safeguard the
health care worker and other staffs. It is essential that the management of
deceased service users be handled with extreme sensitivity and a sensible
approach. An individualized approach assists with the relationship between
the families and care givers at a time of probable distress.

2. Organisms in a dead body are unlikely to infect healthy people with intact
skin, but there are other ways they may be spread.
o Needle stick injuries from a contaminated instrument or sharp
fragment of bone.
o Intestinal pathogens from anal and oral orifices
o Through abrasions, wounds and sores on the skin
o Contaminated aerosols from body openings or wounds e.g.
tubercule bacilli when condensation could possibly be forced out of
the mouth.
o Splashes and/or aerosols onto the eyes

Prepared by: Reviewed by: Approved by:

MANOLITO C. RIVERA, RN, MAN DR. EDWIN JOHN C. LIMJUCO, MHcA DR. IRECSON S. CASTEEL,MD ,DPBO,FPOA,MAHA

Nurse Supervisor Chief of Clinics Medical Director

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 DESERET SurgiMed HOSPITAL
Nat’l Highway, Kabacan, North Cotabato
Contact no. (064) 248 24 94/ email add: deseretsurgimed@gmail.com

Area: Nurse supervisor’s office Document code # : _________________

Process owner: Nurses, Physician, Orderly Revision #.:_______________________
Title: POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ON DISPOSITION Effectivity Date: August 29, 2017
OF DEAD BODIES WITH DANGEROUS Number of Pages: 2
COMMUNICABLE DISEASE.

3. These standard precautions should be adhered to at all times and include:

o Hand Hygiene
o Appropriate use of protective clothing i.e. water repellent aprons
and gloves
o Appropriate cleaning of the environment.
o Body Fluid Spillage management.
o Waste disposal as per Trust Waste Management Policy
o Sharps & Inoculation Management

4. Body bags should only be reserved for cases where a risk assessment
makes it necessary. Plastic body bags are used for cadavers thought to be
infective to handlers, or likely to leak in transit, or otherwise offensive
bodies. The bags are in many cases used inappropriately for bodies, are of
minimal or no risk and this causes problems to the staff of funeral parlors
and unnecessary distress to relatives. Bodies cool more slowly inside a
body bag, facilitating decomposition and making hygienic (last offices)
preparation more difficult. It may only be possible to only display the head
for viewing and this may cause additional distress to the bereaved.
5. Dead bodies must not stay in the ward or Emergency room for no more
than five minutes and must be transported to the morgue right after the
post mortem care.

Prepared by: Reviewed by: Approved by:

MANOLITO C. RIVERA, RN, MAN DR. EDWIN JOHN C. LIMJUCO, MHcA DR. IRECSON S. CASTEEL,MD ,DPBO,FPOA,MAHA

Nurse Supervisor Chief of Clinics Medical Director

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