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The first step toward building a new safety culture may be taking stock of the one you've already got. Do your employees believe that managers care about employee safety? Do they feel comfortable alerting managers to hazards? Do they use personal protective equipment when it's recommended?
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On January 18, OSHA administrator David Michaels, PhD, MPH, gave a speech to the advocacy group Public Citizen in Washington, DC. Here is what he had to say about an Injury and Illness Prevention Program rule:
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Business groups raised an uproar over proposed changes in the interpretation of the noise protection rule, and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration heard them.
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Ethical concerns and privacy regulations make for a more complicated situation when health care researchers desire to view patient records to find potential research subjects.
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Hospital ethics boards should take the lead in promoting greater intercultural understanding between clinical staff and patients, according to an expert. This begins with education focusing around cultural awareness.
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The default policy of many hospitals is to have clinicians perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on dying patients except when there is a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) medical order signed by the patient.
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Clinical ethics consultations still are infrequent in most hospitals, but their use is beginning to enter ethics board conversations, and it's an area that should be approached with cautious preparation, an expert says.
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Fresh research on burnout in the medical profession makes it clear that hospital ethics boards need to be proactive on this issue. Their role could include educating and suggesting policies to prevent physician and resident burnout and any resulting repercussions.
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Palliative care once was a rare treatment option in the hospital setting, but in recent years it has grown in popularity to the point that most major hospitals and many small-to-mid-sized hospitals have palliative care programs available for patients, an expert says.
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As hospitals add more palliative care services, ethical issues arise that sometimes cannot be handled solely by a hospital ethics board because a broader community perspective is necessary.