Hospital Employee Health – February 1, 2023

Healthcare Workers Weather Respiratory Onslaught

In a seemingly interminable viral winter, healthcare workers are facing a rare convergence of a pandemic virus and unusually high levels of seasonal flu and respiratory syncytial virus. Some are tired and sick; others sick of being tired. As EDs stretch capacity to the limits to treat respiratory patients, others with various conditions and critical needs are backed up.

Physicians Can Suffer Moral Injury if Oath to Patients Is Broken

Long before the pandemic, physicians were suffering from “moral injury” — a violation of one’s values, ethical code, or sworn duty — because too often they had to choose between their patients and the profits and performance measures of corporate medicine, claims the author of a new book.

OSHA COVID-19 Draft Rule in Healthcare Expected Soon

As this report was filed, OSHA had finalized the COVID-19 standard to protect healthcare workers and submitted it to the White House. On Dec. 8, 2022, OSHA sent the standard to the Office of Management and Budget, with a decision on its fate expected sometime in early 2023.

OSHA Violence Prevention Draft Regulation Expected in 2023

With the COVID-19 standard moving through the final stages toward finalization, OSHA is expected to next issue a violence prevention draft standard for healthcare in 2023.

CDC Updates Rabies Guidance for Healthcare Workers

The CDC has updated its guidelines for occupational exposure to rabies to emphasize the rare but real risk to healthcare workers.