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Employee health smallpox role: Safeguard HCWs from vaccine risks

Employee health professionals will not be administering the smallpox vaccine to health care workers, but they may be among the first to receive it under a recommendation approved by two federal advisory panels. About 500,000 health care workers around 100 per hospital may be vaccinated under the latest plan to prepare for bioterrorism. There have been no cases of smallpox worldwide since 1977, so even a single confirmed case of smallpox would be considered a bioterrorism event.

Vigilant monitoring will protect HCWs, patients

After health care workers receive the smallpox vaccine, employee health professionals will assist with the most important vaccination role: monitoring reactions and protecting patients and others from vaccinia.

Smallpox vaccinations imminent for hospitals

The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recently approved a plan that calls for smallpox immunization of 510,000 health care workers. The plan suggests that all hospitals should designate a smallpox care team that should be immunized prior to any release of the virus.

ACIP Recommendations for Smallpox Vaccinations

he Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations.

Contraindications to Smallpox Vaccination

Rising injury rates linked to nursing shortage

Employee injury rates are gaining attention as one sign of nurse staffing problems. As concerns rise over a growing nursing shortage, employee health professionals have an unprecedented opportunity to link patient safety with worker safety.

Joint Commission Staffing Effectiveness Standard

In the new staffing effectiveness standard, which became effective July 2002, surveyors from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations in Oakbrook Terrace, IL, will look at actual vs. planned staffing in organizations.

JCAHO unveils streamlined, consistent surveys

Promising that surveys will become more streamlined and patient-focused, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations unveiled a new accreditation process, set to begin in 2004.

Reuse of needles in clinic sparks HCV outbreak

More than 50 patients were infected with hepatitis C at an Oklahoma pain management clinic when a nurse reused a syringe and needle for injections into a heparin lock of the patients IV line. The case, which is still under investigation, represents the largest known nosocomial transmission of hepatitis C in the United States, says Michael Crutcher, MD, state epidemiologist with the Oklahoma State Department of Health in Oklahoma City.

What to do when you can’t do it all

Do more with less. Comply with regulations; manage workers compensation costs; and create new injury prevention programs. But, by the way, were cutting your staff.

Add this to your to-do list: A dose of business savvy

Occupational health nurses are increasing their focus on outcomes and using information technology to meet their goals, according to a survey of some 2,000 occupational health nurses by the American Board of Occupational Health Nurses (ABOHN) in Hinsdale, IL. About one-quarter of the respondents were hospital-based.

Hospital Employee Health – December 1, 2002

December 1, 2002