Hospital Employee Health – November 1, 2012
November 1, 2012
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Labs urged to boost worker safety measures
For weeks, 25-year-old Richard Din worked long hours in the lab, hoping for a research breakthrough. At the VA Medical Center in San Francisco, he was a research laboratory associate on a project to develop a vaccine against Neisseria meningitides serogroup B. But instead of saving lives, Din became a victim of the deadly organism. -
NIOSH: No lab tests in chemo monitoring
Hospitals should provide medical monitoring of employees who work with hazardous drugs, but they don't need to conduct periodic blood tests or urinalysis, according to new recommendations from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). -
Pertussis immunity wanes over time
Health care workers who received the acellular pertussis vaccine as children may have little immunity as adults, a new study suggests. -
Stress and sleepless nights bring pain
Your hospital may be causing your workers pain and not just for the reasons you think. Job stress, including harassment from coworkers or unsupportive supervisors, contributes to musculoskeletal pain and injury and a host of other problems, according to a growing body of research. -
Caution urged on wellness incentives
Six health care organizations have come together with one strong message: Be careful in your design of wellness incentives so that they don't treat some employees unfairly or restrict access to health insurance. -
A bend in the road to needle safety
Sharps injuries from suture needles aren't necessarily happening in the operating room. As Sinai Health System in Chicago discovered, they may occur during the insertion of central lines or other procedures outside the OR. And they can be prevented.