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As with most employers, the cost of health insurance was rising year after year for Sentara Healthcare of Norfolk, VA, an integrated health care delivery system that includes eight acute care hospitals, outpatient centers, long-term care, and Optima Health Plan, an insurance subsidiary.
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Safe lift programs save money, and they save more if they are comprehensive and have leadership support. That finding from a new study of workers' compensation and lift-related injuries in long-term care provides a strong, new underpinning for the financial benefits of safe patient handling.
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You may be pressured to return an injured employee to work as soon as possible by management, human resources, or supervisors. However, returning someone to work too soon can put the employee, the company, and yourself at risk, warns Mary D.C. Garison, RN, COHN-S, CCM, COHC, FAAOHN, an Angleton, TX-based occupational health nurse.
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It may seem like a "no-brainer" to you, but it's not always enough to simply ask workers to make changes for better health. You may need to offer other incentives to get them to take action, says Margie Weiss, PhD, CEO and community health advocate at the Weiss Health Group, a Neenah, WI-based consulting company that works with companies and communities on health and wellness.
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Social media is opening up new avenues for delivering health and safety information. Employee health professionals can download training videos from YouTube, track occupational health news or research on a blog or Twitter, and even communicate with their own employees through social networking sites.
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You may go to great lengths to achieve good participation in Health Risk Assessments (HRAs), but the data is of no good to you unless you use it.
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As an employee, wouldn't you like the chance to anonymously report what you really think of occupational health programs? This is one way Sandra Cinque, RN, BA, COHN-S/CM, FAAOHN, nurse clinical coordinator for health, safety & performance services at GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare in Parsippany, NJ, promotes participation in the company's Health Risk Questionnaires (HRQs).
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If your employer does not already have a comprehensive workplace safety program in place, one may soon be required.
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The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) has taken a strong position in favor of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration's proposed federal Illness and Injury Prevention Programs (I2P2) standard, including strengthening the requirements in certain ways beyond what California OSHA already requires, says Paul Papanek, MD, MPH, chairman of the board for the San Francisco, CA-based Western Occupational Environmental Medical Association.
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Latex gloves are back on the public agenda. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a proposed warning label for powdered gloves and is considering a ban on the use of powder in latex gloves and alternatives, even as hospitals greatly reduce their use of powdered gloves.
