Hospital Employee Health – November 1, 2009
November 1, 2009
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H1N1 vaccine: First doses go to HCWs treating high-risk patients
As limited amounts of the first doses of novel H1N1 vaccine were expected to reach providers in early October, hospitals placed a top priority on vaccinating health care workers who provide care to the most vulnerable patients. Even health care workers who have had flu-like symptoms and were diagnosed with novel H1N1 should receive the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. -
Uncertainty remains about N95 supply
Will there be enough N95 filtering facepiece respirators to protect health care workers from the novel H1N1 virus? -
HR policies can affect ill HCW decisions
The surge of novel H1N1 also is a surge of ill employees and absenteeism. Do you have human resources policies that will help you cope? -
ACOEM: Don't reassign all at-risk health workers
Occupational medicine physicians and infection preventionists agree: It isn't a good policy to exclude "at-risk" employees from certain duties due to potential exposure to novel H1N1. -
Health care tops in injuries on the job
Being a nurse's aide or orderly is the most injury-prone job in America. Those aides are four times as likely to be injured on the job as the average worker, and their rate of injury tops freight haulers and handlers, and construction laborers. -
Though count is down, injuries stay high
Every year, the U.S. Secretary of Labor - whoever that may be - declares America's workplaces to be safer than the last. The proof: Lower injury rates reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. -
NIOSH considers new glutaraldehyde limit
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is considering a revision to its glutaraldehyde recommended exposure limit (REL) and has issued a Federal Register notice asking for information on glutaraldehyde research, use, safety training, and manufacture.