Hospital Employee Health – May 1, 2005
May 1, 2005
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Hospitals heed warning signs of avian influenza pandemic
As avian influenza cases continue to emerge in Vietnam, the call for pandemic preparedness is gaining urgency. Between mid-December and mid-March, there have been 24 human infections of influenza A (H5N1) in Vietnam 13 of them fatal. Public health experts caution the virus could mutate and become transmissible among people the key to a pandemic. -
Infection Control and Avian Influenza Recommendations
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued recommendations for infection control in health care facilities to prevent possible spread of avian influenza. -
The Avian Influenza Threat
A report by the World Health Organization in Geneva presented these dire findings about avian influenza and the potential for a pandemic. -
IOM: CDC never made a case for smallpox vaccine
In 2003, an urgent concern about bioterrorism drove the health care community to mobilize and deliver smallpox vaccine to health care workers across the country. The Department of Health and Human Services called for vaccination of 500,000 health care workers nationwide. Yet vaccination efforts waned as reports arose about adverse cardiac events. Within six months, the program was all but over. About 40,000 health care workers had been vaccinated. -
After chemical spill, WA hospital revamps policies
It was 9 p.m. when housekeepers at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, WA, received a call about a spill of formalin, a fixative that is 10% formaldehyde. They wondered if there was some special precaution they should take, but when they called their manager, he told them just to clean it up. -
Injury management brings cost savings
Gaps in the system are costing you money: the injury that isnt reported right away; the employee who doesnt keep a doctors appointment; and the supervisor who doesnt make an effort to find a position for an employee with temporary restrictions. -
Safety by the numbers: Ergo hazards and results
Patient handling isnt like carrying boxes, which can be defined by weight and size. But you can still take a methodical, or even numerical, approach to the hazards. -
For HCW flu vaccine, make it free and easy
If you want to raise the influenza vaccination rates of health care workers, make the vaccines free and convenient. Education helps, but a promotional campaign wont be enough. -
News Brief
OSHA sends letters to 68 high-injury hospitals -
Bioterrorism Watch Supplment