Hospital Employee Health 2010-10-01

Hospitals must address risk of violence at the workplace

Hospitals have been placed on notice: They must address the hazards of workplace violence.

Joint Commission steps to reduce threat

In a Sentinel Event Alert, The Joint Commission offered the following recommendations for reducing the risk of violence in hospitals:

Violence threatens patients, HCWs

Hospitals are not the "safe havens" they once were. That is the cautionary message of a recent Sentinel Event Alert by the Joint Commission accrediting body, which focuses on attacks on patients.

Will feds recommend mandatory flu vaccine?

Federal health authorities are taking the first tentative steps toward considering a recommendation on mandatory influenza immunization of health care workers.

CDC seeks to clarify TB test questions

A hospital employee tests positive on a tuberculin skin test. Should you retest with a blood test to confirm that? An employee tests positive on a TB blood test but works in a low-risk area and has had no known exposures. Should you recommend treatment for latent TB infection?

CDC: Use judgment when interpreting IGRAs

In new guidelines for Interferon Gamma Release Assays (IGRAs), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers these recommendations.

Sharps safety starts with safety climate

If you want employees to comply with sharps safety, then their supervisors have to require it. That is a strong message that emerged from a survey of paramedics related to bloodborne pathogen exposures.

Preventing sharps injuries to emergency workers

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health offers the following recommendations for employers and employees to prevent bloodborne pathogen exposures among paramedics and other emergency workers:

H1N1 influeza A in post-pandemic period

Like a hurricane downgraded to a tropical depression, H1N1 influenza A has lost its pandemic status and is now just another troublesome flu bug, the World Health Organization reports.

News 'flash': JC, key groups get on same page on 'immediate-use steam sterilization'

Meeting with key stakeholders and sterilization groups, the Joint Commission is nearing a landmark consensus position on the long-confusing issue of "flash" sterilization. With various groups already offering slightly differing definitions and interpretations, the Joint Commission tried to clarify its stance last year with a position statement that apparently caused as much confusion as it allayed.

Hospital Employee Health – October 1, 2010

October 1, 2010