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A pilot project providing coaching and follow up for heart failure (HF) patients who are readmitted frequently resulted in a 50% drop in the readmission rate at Indiana University (IU) Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie, IN.
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Almost six years ago, OhioHealth in Columbus began to face up to a problem: Many employees at the multi-hospital system in central Ohio were unhealthy. They were smokers, overweight, physically inactive, stressed out.
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According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, these industries had the highest rates of work-related injury and illness in the United States in 2010:
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Cleaning patient's rooms may not seem like the most important job in the hospital. But environmental service workers save lives in their own way by preventing the spread of infections. A new spotlight on their role may boost the resources, communication and training focused on this group of workers.
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Growing anti-regulatory pressure and presidential politics bring new hurdles for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which was already known for its snail-like pace of rulemaking. The agency has delayed the release of several key regulations, and observers expect little to emerge in the midst of an election year.
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Lift teams are now the law in California. After seven years and five vetoes, a safe patient handling bill was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown that requires hospitals to have "trained lift teams or other support staff trained in safe lifting techniques."
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America's health care workers may provide the best of care to their patients, but they aren't very good at caring for their own health. They have a greater burden of chronic diseases than other workers which also means higher medical costs for their employers.
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As hospitals ramp up their efforts to provide safe patient handling, there's also an increase in the services available to help them. In fact, even beyond training and traditional consulting, hospitals now can hire contracted lift teams.
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Beware of the beautiful respirator. Efforts to make a fashion statement with an N95 respirator degrade the protective qualities and negate its approval by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, says Roland Berry Ann, deputy director of NIOSH's National Personal Protective Technology Lab.
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Two years after the emergence of the H1N1 pandemic, hospitals are still learning lessons that may help avert serious problems in a future outbreak. Respiratory protection in particular became a contentious issue during the pandemic, and it remains an area of concern.
