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Hospitals received an unwelcome New Years present from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the form of a new mandate: They must update their respiratory protection programs and conduct annual fit-testing of any employee wearing a respirator for TB or any other reason.
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If public health authorities want to convince health care workers to get vaccinated against influenza, they wont mention a recent study at a Denver hospital. It found that this years vaccine did not reduce the likelihood of getting influenzalike illness. Yet that study is far from the final word on the subject.
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A wall-to-wall, comprehensive Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspection resulted in 41 alleged health and safety violations and $91,500 in fines for New Britain (CT) General Hospital.
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As of Jan. 1, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires employers to use the revised OSHA 300 form, which includes a separate column for occupational hearing loss.
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Federal enforcement of the annual fit-testing requirement has been halted for at least a year, as Congress intervened in the tuberculosis-related rule. Meanwhile, new draft federal TB guidelines leave some ambiguity by recommending periodic fit-testing, while acknowledging regulations that require annual fit-testing.
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Brace yourself for a tough flu season. Absenteeism could become an issue for many hospitals as unvaccinated employees with respiratory symptoms miss days of work.
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It was a challenge issued to the beat of a step class, the pace of a race walk, the strength of a stream of push-ups. The reward for the team who won the Fitness Challenge at DeKalb Medical Center in Decatur, GA: $1,000 to split and a paid day off.
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Enforcement related to ergonomic hazards remains light more than two years after the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) trained inspectors to recognize and document those hazards. More than 1,000 inspections of nursing homes generated only 10 citations related to ergonomics. They were among only 16 employers nationwide who received such citations.
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In a bad-news year for influenza vaccination, public health authorities are glad for some good tidings: The flu season began slowly and the vaccine promised to be more effective than last years mismatched version.