What Poor Lab Safety Really Costs

When we think about the cost of poor laboratory safety, the first things that probably come to mind are easy to see: an employee injury, an exposure, a regulatory citation, or a fine.

Those costs matter. But they’re only part of the picture.

During the MediaLab by Vastian webinar “More Than Money: The Real Cost of Poor Laboratory Safety,” laboratory safety experts Dan Scungio and Jason Nagy explored what happens when safety begins to slip, and why the biggest consequences may be hiding beneath the surface.

Poor safety can affect staffing, morale, productivity, employee trust, and even patient outcomes. And often those problems don’t begin with a single dramatic event. They start with small cracks in the safety program that are allowed to grow.

The good news? Many of those cracks can be identified and addressed before they become something bigger.

Poor Safety Is Like an Iceberg

‍

Picture an iceberg.

Above the water are the safety problems everyone notices: injuries, exposures, inspection citations, fines, and other incidents that demand immediate attention.

But below the surface may be a much larger group of problems:

Poor training. Disengaged employees. Low morale. Lack of accountability. Shortcuts. Burnout. Distrust. Normalized unsafe behaviors.

Those less-visible issues can slowly weaken a laboratory’s safety culture long before a major incident occurs.

That’s why looking only at injury numbers or inspection findings doesn’t necessarily tell you whether your laboratory has a strong safety culture. A lab could have no reported injuries and still have risky behaviors happening every day.

The question shouldn’t simply be, “Did anyone get hurt?”

It should also be, “What are we doing today to keep someone from getting hurt tomorrow?”

Start With the “Why”

One of the foundations of a strong safety program is education. Effective safety education needs to go beyond simply telling employees what the rules are. Employees also need to understand why those rules exist.

Consider personal protective equipment. Telling someone to wear gloves, a fluid-resistant laboratory coat, or face protection is one thing. Explaining the hazard that PPE is protecting them from gives that requirement context.

Without the “why,” a safety requirement can eventually feel arbitrary:

• I’ve done this without a face shield plenty of times.
• Nothing has ever happened.
• Do I really need to wear this?

Once the risk becomes invisible, shortcuts can start to feel reasonable.

Good education connects the requirement to the hazard. When employees understand why a safety practice matters, they are better equipped to make good decisions, even when no one is standing nearby to remind them what to do.

Education Is the “Why.” Training Is the “How.”

Knowing why a safety procedure matters doesn’t automatically mean someone knows how to perform it correctly. That’s where training comes in.

Reading an SOP can provide essential information, but reading alone does not necessarily prepare someone to safely perform a new task. Laboratory professionals often need demonstration, practice, observation, and feedback.

Think about learning to drive. You could read an automobile owner’s manual from cover to cover, but most of us probably wouldn’t consider that enough preparation to hand someone the keys and send them onto the interstate.

Laboratory procedures deserve the same consideration.

Effective training should be structured, complete, and consistent. Whenever possible, practical and scenario-based training can also help employees connect what they are learning to situations they encounter on the job.

And training shouldn’t simply end because orientation is over. Ongoing refreshers can help keep important safety practices top of mind.

That doesn’t mean repeating the exact same safety presentation every few months. Mix it up. Discuss a recent near miss. Walk through an evacuation route. Practice a spill response. Run a tabletop fire scenario.

The goal is to build familiarity and confidence, so employees know what to do when an actual event occurs.

Accountability Has to Be Consistent

Most laboratories want employees to take ownership of safety. But creating that kind of accountability requires more than telling everyone, “Safety is your responsibility.”

Expectations need to be clear, visible, and consistently reinforced.

If one employee is reminded every day to button their laboratory coat while another employee is allowed to ignore the same requirement, the message becomes confusing.

If leaders walk through the laboratory without following the same PPE expectations they enforce for staff, employees notice.

And if everyone walks past an obvious hazard because “that’s someone else’s job,” the safety culture begins to weaken.

One of the webinar’s simplest messages is also one of its strongest:

If you see something and say nothing, you unintentionally permit the behavior to continue.

Accountability works best when people view the laboratory as a shared space. Everyone has a role in keeping that space safe.

What You Permit Can Become Normal

One small shortcut might not look particularly dangerous.

Maybe someone occasionally skips a piece of PPE. A sharps container gets a little too full. A blocked exit goes unaddressed. Someone keeps a drink tucked underneath a counter. Personal electronic devices start appearing in work areas.

Nothing happens.

Then it happens again.

Still nothing happens.

Eventually, the shortcut may stop feeling like a shortcut at all.

This is normalization of deviance: an unsafe or incorrect behavior gradually becomes accepted because it has occurred repeatedly without an obvious negative consequence.

“I’ve done it this way for 20 years and nothing has happened” can sound reassuring, but it isn't evidence that a behavior is safe. It may simply mean the laboratory has been fortunate so far.

These small deviations are the cracks in the windshield. Left alone, they can spread.

One Safety Incident Can Create a Ripple Effect

An injury rarely costs only the amount associated with treating the injury itself.

Imagine that an employee is hurt and has to leave the bench.

Now the laboratory needs to investigate what happened. Other employees need to be interviewed or pulled away from their usual responsibilities. Staffing becomes tighter. Someone works overtime or temporary help is needed.

Meanwhile, the remaining staff are under more pressure to maintain turnaround times with fewer people. That pressure can lead to additional shortcuts.

Morale suffers. Burnout grows. Productivity drops.

What started as one incident can turn into a much larger operational problem.

There may also be direct financial consequences, including workers’ compensation expenses, overtime, temporary staffing, retraining, decreased productivity, potential legal expenses, and reputational damage.

That’s why investing in prevention can be far less costly than repeatedly paying for the consequences of poor safety.

Oversight Should Be Proactive, Not Reactive

Strong safety programs require leaders to know what is actually happening in the laboratory. And that’s difficult to do exclusively from an office.

Regular safety rounds give leaders and safety professionals an opportunity to spot hazards before they cause harm, reinforce expectations, answer questions, and understand how work is being performed.

Visibility matters.

It also provides an opportunity for positive coaching. Safety conversations shouldn’t only happen when someone is doing something wrong. Recognizing safe behaviors can be just as important.

A quick “Thank you for catching that” or acknowledgment during a staff huddle can reinforce the behaviors you want to see.

Regular rounds can also help leaders develop what Dan and Jason call “Safety Eyes,” the ability to intentionally notice hazards that might otherwise blend into the background.

Start small. On one walk-through, focus only on PPE use. On another, pay attention to footwear. Next time, look at signage or labeling. Then, examine electrical hazards, blocked exits, or other concerns.

Over time, spotting safety issues can become second nature.

Build a Laboratory Where People Feel Safe Speaking Up

Physical safety isn’t the only piece of a strong safety culture. Employees also need psychological safety: the confidence that they can raise a concern, report a near miss, or ask a safety question without being dismissed, blamed, or retaliated against.

How leaders respond matters.

If an employee raises a concern and immediately hears, “That’s not a problem,” they may think twice before speaking up the next time.

Instead, listen. Ask questions. Investigate when needed. And perhaps most importantly, circle back.

If someone reports a safety problem, let them know what happened. Explain what was changed, or, if no change was necessary, explain why.

Closing that loop demonstrates that speaking up matters.

Near-miss reporting is especially valuable. A near miss isn’t something to hide or be embarrassed about. It’s an opportunity to identify a weakness and correct it before someone is injured.

Getting Buy-In Means Getting People Involved

Safety works better when it isn't something being done to employees.

Bring staff into the conversation. Ask for their ideas when workflows need to change. Include them when evaluating safety problems. Let the people performing the work help identify practical solutions.

Participation creates ownership.

And when employees feel they have a role in developing a safer process, they may be much more invested in making it succeed.

Don’t forget to celebrate the wins, either.

It doesn’t require a big event. Recognize an improved audit score. Thank someone for reporting a near miss. Highlight a successful safety initiative during a meeting. Write an accomplishment on the department whiteboard.

Small recognition can help reinforce the message that safety matters.

Reactive vs. Proactive: Which Lab Do You Want to Be?

A reactive laboratory acts after something happens.

Someone gets hurt. Then the problem is investigated.

An inspection identifies an issue. Then it gets corrected.

A spill occurs. Then the procedure gets reviewed.

A proactive laboratory looks for the problem first.

It pays attention to small failures. It tracks trends. It reviews near misses. It conducts safety rounds. It listens to employees. It provides consistent education and training. It evaluates whether corrective actions actually worked.

That approach aligns with the principles of a high-reliability organization, an organization operating in a complex environment where small failures matter and consistency is essential.

Clinical laboratories fit that description well.

The work is complex. The environment contains real hazards. When something goes wrong, the consequences may affect employees, operations, and patients.

That makes attention to seemingly minor safety problems especially important.

Safety Culture Is Built One Decision at a Time

There probably isn't a laboratory anywhere that has never experienced poor safety behavior.

The goal isn't perfection. The goal is to recognize the cracks early enough to do something about them.

Provide education that explains the why. Deliver training that demonstrates the how.  

Set clear expectations. Model the behaviors you expect. Keep leaders visible. Encourage reporting. Listen when employees speak up. Follow through when concerns are raised.

Don't allow shortcuts to quietly become “the way we've always done it.” Because the true cost of poor laboratory safety extends well beyond dollars and cents.

It can show up in employee injuries and exposures, but it can also appear as burnout, turnover, distrust, poor morale, workflow instability, and declining safety culture.

A proactive laboratory invests before those costs appear.

Keep Safety Education Going

A strong safety culture isn’t built during one orientation session or one annual safety meeting. Keeping safety knowledge current takes ongoing education, reinforcement, and conversation.

MediaLab by Vastian’s Compliance & CE library gives medical laboratory professionals access to continuing education and compliance training designed with the laboratory in mind.

Whether you’re refreshing essential safety concepts, supporting staff development, or looking for educational resources for your laboratory team, there’s always an opportunity to keep learning.

Visit the MediaLab by Vastian Compliance & CE library and continue building the knowledge that supports a safer, stronger laboratory.