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In an alert on the handling of hazardous drugs, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health included the following recommendations related to medical surveillance.
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Hospitals are using questionnaires as a way to monitor the possible health effects on employees who work with chemotherapeutic agents. But there are no guidelines that tell hospitals what to ask or how to implement the program.
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The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations hailed the enactment of federal patient safety legislation that will encourage the voluntary reporting of medical errors, serious adverse events, and their underlying causes.
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Why cant N95 filtering facepiece respirators fit better? Amid the turmoil over annual fit-testing, employee health professionals are asking for better products and product information. It may be a while before they get them.
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An undiagnosed surgical resident with active tuberculosis exposed patients and co-workers at four Boston-area hospitals. More than 3,700 patients and hospital employees received notices that they needed to be tested.
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When an injury occurs, its helpful to dissect the incident and figure out how to correct safety problems. But wouldnt it be better to prevent the injury in the first place?
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This is a copy of the letter Jonathan Snare, administrator for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration sent to Rep. Roger Wicker (R-MS) on the issue of annual fit-testing.
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Periodic, not annual, fit-testing will continue to be the watchword in the tuberculosis guidelines that currently are being finalized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC has declined to define periodic, leaving the decision to individual health care facilities.
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Pressure is building on hospitals to obtain signed declination statements from health care workers who choose not to receive the influenza vaccine. Two federal advisory panels considered the declination policy as just another possible strategy to boost vaccination rates and monitor employee response to vaccination efforts. But some employee health professionals worry that it would become a de facto guideline and would create a new paperwork burden as they struggle to track down employees and verify their vaccination status.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends varicella vaccination for susceptible health care workers, especially if they have close contact with patients who are at high risk for serious complications. That includes premature infants born to susceptible mothers, infants who are born at less than 28 weeks of gestation or who weigh less than 1,000 g at birth (regardless of maternal immune status), pregnant women, and immunocompromised people.
