While emphasizing that Ebola does not spread by the airborne route, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising in new infection control guidelines that health care workers wear N95 respirators or powered air purifying respirators (PAPRs) for treating patients stricken with the deadly virus.

Hospital employee health professionals should consider using social media and Internet communications and campaigns to electronically promote safety and health for health care workers.

Nurses nationwide recently expressed fear and anxiety over the possibility of having to treat Ebola patients in hospitals they claim are poorly equipped. In a national teleconference call in October, thousands of nurses called in to hear and share information about how health systems are responding to the Ebola crisis.

The recent Ebola infection of two Dallas nurses raises troubling questions about how prepared hospitals are to protect their employees from infectious diseases and whether the health care industry needs a higher level of worker safety.

As news shows broadcast seemingly endless loops about Ebola, every community in America wanted to know: Is my local hospital ready to safely handle an Ebola patient?

In a legal challenge that could set a precedent for flu shot mandates, the Massachusetts Nurses Association has filed suit challenging a proposed mandatory flu vaccination policy at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. Under the policy, workers can forego the flu shot for medical or religious reasons, but otherwise could be subjected to discipline that could include job termination, the union charges in the suit.

Patients will soon be able to check the influenza vaccination rates of health care workers at the nation’s hospitals through Hospitalcompare.gov, the website of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Expecting the unexpected: ‘The best managers are people who don’t lose that human touch.’ Whether it’s a rare flu epidemic like H1N1, a natural disaster or a major hospital technology overhaul, hospital employee health departments can just about predict the arrival of something unpredictable every year or two.

Hospitals with solid organizational practices and policies, including better ergonomic practices, have lower injury rates among nurses, a new study finds.

For the first time, conjugated monoclonal antibodies have been added to a list of drugs that pose an occupational hazard. The new cancer treatment targets tumors with deadly toxins – but also can produce some residue that could put health care workers at risk, safety experts caution.