Epidemic Workplace Injuries. Highest Injury Rate Of Any Local Industry. OSHA InvestigatesRudy Tacoronti, M.D., M.P.H., Jacksonville, FL |
| OSHA investigates and finds severe ergonomic hazards, need for personal
protective equipment, and stringent environmental controls. Is this a foundry? No. Is this a new manufacturing process that the
hazards and risks were not well known? No. Is this a highly manual
manufacturing line providing some new and unusual product to the consumer without regard for the
workers injured? No. This is your local hospital.
A health care facility taking care of your mother, father, children, husbands and wives. Because we are so familiar with the setting and environment, we are blinded by the potential hazards of a hospital setting. Consider this. Most people believe throwing 60 pound bags of sand arduous labor. How about lifting an unruly 250 pound, 6 foot by 2-foot wide patient from the floor onto a tabletop? This is a routine task in any nursing home across the country. No wonder lifting and back injuries are highest in the health care industry than many manufacturing industries. But the risks do not stop here. Because of loss in market share and cuts in profitability for its product line, many of these job sites are underpaid, understaffed with the constant pressures to meet the bottom line. Add to this, clients are often in dire distress with poor tolerance for waiting or slow service. Then there are rotating shifts and a requirement to work family holidays, birthdays and anniversaries. Talk about work place stress. But does it stop here? No. Toxic exposures with life and death consequences. The ability to take these exposures home and harm friends and family. Tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, AIDS virus and don't forget the common exposures to rubella, varicella, mumps, measles, and influenza. Employees of a health care center are routinely and repetitively exposed to these biological agents and have the potential to develop the disease and pass onto to their love ones. And to provide this service, a hospital is a small city. The Chief Executive Officer is a mayor overseeing the not only the patient care and the environment they reside in, but also all the support services that maintain the environment. Power Plants with noise, heat and potential fume hazards, warehouses with forklift operations and exposure to outside temperatures and moving conveyor hazards. A police force that may be required to manage parking, traffic as well as restrain a combative patient with potential blood borne illnesses. Restaurants with food handling and preparation hazards as well as an integrated administrative and personnel division with accounting and payroll to allocate and pay the costs associated with this operation. And just like any major manufacturing site, hospitals are required to maintain a safe workplace for both its clients and employees. The requirements are often a safety manager's nightmare. Assuring the job site is free of walking hazards, knowing that many of you patients can barely stand. Designing and implementing programs to protect fellow patients and employees from job places hazards such as tuberculosis, needle sticks, noise, and ergonomic hazards. This is the basis of hospital respiratory protection programs, blood borne pathogen programs, hearing conservation programs, and hazardous notification programs. And many of these programs are supported by Industrial Hygiene services. Such as Ethylene oxide exposure measurements in sterilizing stations, waste anesthetic gases in operating suites, carbon monoxide and noise testing in power plants and warehouse operations along with designing new controls to prevent allergic reactions to latex. In summary, a health care facility is a small industrial site. We all have experienced and have become accustomed to the setting but may have lost sight of the overall risk. A well functioning safety and health program is a must to maintaining the well being of its employees as well as its clients. April, 2001/ Jacksonville MedicineWhat's New
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