Hospital Employee Health – October 1, 2003

October 1, 2003

• Performance improvement approach yields savings on health screenings

  Figuring out how to save money is a lot easier than actually doing it. That is the lesson that Delynn Lamott, RN, MS, COHN-S, learned when she went to work for a small community hospital in Michigan.

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• Random drug screening saves costs and time

  Drug screening rarely comes out positive in new hires, but the screening itself may dissuade drug users from applying for jobs. The University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina in Greenville, NC, was able to make the process more cost-effective by implementing random drug screening.

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• Cut claims — not cost per claim — to save

  In tight economic times, injury prevention is an economic necessity. Consider this: Medical costs for workers compensation claims involving lost time from work rose by 12% in 2002. Payment for lost wages rose by 7%, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

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• Zero lifts boost savings for St. Louis hospital

  Ergonomist Laurie Wolf, MS, CPE, spent years teaching client companies how to reduce their workers compensation claims by implementing ergonomic interventions. But when her own employer, BJC Health Care in St. Louis, encountered claims of more than $4 million, she realized that she needed to turn her attention close to home.

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• OSHA gets tough on needle safety with high fines

  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is hanging tough on enforcement of safer needle devices, with a new information bulletin that clearly restates its prohibition against reuse of blood tube holders.

  Read more about OSHA gets tough on needle safety with high fines - Hospital Employee Health – October 1, 2003

• IOM: Create a registry of smallpox responders

  Smallpox preparedness needs to take a broader focus, with a registry of health care workers and others who have been previously vaccinated, an Institute of Medicine (IOM) panel has advised.1

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• Risk drops of HIV from needlesticks

  The risk of acquiring HIV infection from occupational exposures may be even lower than the three in 1,000 rate that is commonly cited.

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• ‘It happened to me’: Promoting needle safety

  Been there; done that; got stuck. Sometimes the most convincing argument for using safer needles comes from someone who didnt.

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