-
How do you know if your needlestick prevention program is working? A decrease in injuries is a good barometer but sometimes that could reflect a lack of reporting rather than an improvement in safety.
-
One employee comes into your office with back strain due to patient lifting. Another is identified by the wellness program as having uncontrolled high blood pressure. Those two issues may seem completely unrelated. But with its WorkLife Initiative, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is urging employers to integrate workplace safety with personal health promotion.
-
They say necessity is the mother of invention. But for health care providers, the inspiration for new safe patient handling devices has come from pain and discomfort and the desire to protect their colleagues from injury.
-
Major reform of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration may be delayed by the ailing economy, but it is inevitable as the agency needs to adapt to the workplace realities of the 21st century, according to the former heads of OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
-
Years ago, we tried to reach Ruth Carrico for a story and she came in from hospital curbside where she was running a drive-through flu shot campaign. The slogan? It wouldnt be the first time you killed a bug with your car.
-
Having cast a cold eye on hospitals, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will next develop plans to improve infection prevention in ambulatory settings and long-term care, Hospital Infection Control & Prevention has learned.
-
Most people in health care would agree that damage control is critical to the success of their productivity.
-
The infection prevention community has lost a high-placed ally, as Julie Gerberding, MD, has stepped down as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of the political changes of the new administration. A new director had not been named as this issue went to press.
-
Hospitals are stuck in a holding pattern in their sharps safety programs. Injury rates dropped dramatically after the implementation of safer sharps in 2001, but many facilities have since reached a plateau.
-
In a case that recalls the national turmoil during the Florida HIV dental outbreak in the early 1990s, investigators have determined that HIV provider-to-patient infections remain exceedingly rare.
