Embalming Standards, Sanitation, and Communicable Disease Precautions
What the exam tests
Expect questions on when embalming is required versus elective, what authorization is needed, the technical and sanitation standards for the preparation room, and infection control.
Authorization and necessity
Ohio does not require embalming for every death. Embalming is generally required when remains will be publicly viewed, shipped by common carrier, or held beyond the time refrigeration cannot reasonably preserve them. If the family declines, the provider must arrange refrigeration or a timely disposition consistent with the rules. Authorization must be obtained in writing before embalming.
Technical and sanitation standards
- Arterial injection with drainage, plus cavity treatment, using approved chemicals at proper dilution.
- Drainage must discharge into a sanitary sewer, never onto the ground or a storm drain.
- Instruments and tables must be cleaned and disinfected after each case; work surfaces must be nonporous.
- Ventilation, eye protection, gloves, gowns, and sharps disposal follow the bloodborne pathogen standard.
- No eating, drinking, or smoking in the preparation room; hands washed before and after gloving.
Communicable disease
Treat every decedent as potentially infectious; universal precautions mean the diagnosis does not change technique. A provider may not refuse service solely because a decedent had a communicable disease, and unnecessary disclosure of a decedent's diagnosis to staff or families is a privacy problem.
Worked example
A hospital reports a decedent with a drug-resistant infection. The embalmer uses the same PPE, ventilation, and disinfection protocol as any other case, adds surface disinfection after drainage, documents the embalming, and tells only staff who need the information.
Traps that cost marks
Believing embalming is mandatory in all cases; embalming on a phone authorization; and assuming a specific diagnosis requires a special, nonstandard procedure.