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Just how clean are your pharmacies and oncology units of contamination from chemotherapy agents and other hazardous drugs? That has been a vexing question, but now several companies are offering testing.
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A new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) hospital inspection initiative includes the following questions for employee health professionals regarding prevention of transmission of infections to health care workers. The tool includes these interview questions:
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The status of employee health is rising, but so are the expectations. As part of a heightened focus on reducing hospital infections, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is developing a national survey program that will include interviews with employee health professionals.
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It takes a team to create a safe workplace not just a committee, but an ongoing collaboration between employee health, safety, risk management, and other professionals. That is the most important advice for reducing workers' compensation claims, says Lori Severson, MS, HEM, ASP, loss control consultant with Lockton Companies of Denver.
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Beginning in July 2012, The Joint Commission will require hospitals to improve influenza rates annually and to work toward a national goal of 90% flu vaccination of health care workers.
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When three of the 13 nurses on an inpatient oncology unit in Wisconsin were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, the employees were alarmed: Was something in the workplace triggering MS? An investigation found no relationship between the workplace and MS, but it did result in recommendations about handling hazardous drugs.
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Cameras nab you if you run a red light. They keep watch over ATMs, parking lots and airport travelers. And now they are being used to make sure health care workers wash their hands.
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In tough economic times, it's hard to promote laws or regulations that will cost employers money. But what if the money spent ends up saving employers even more? That is the argument that is propelling safe patient handling legislation in New York.
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Almost everyone who has been in healthcare for long enough can tell a story about a tired physician or worn-out nurse who has either made a mistake or come this close to it due to fatigue.
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If you say it out loud, people will agree intuitively: You can learn more from your failures than from your successes. But that doesn't mean people want to trumpet what doesn't work.
