Hospital Employee Health 2010-07-01

Federal patient-handling legislation gains momentum

Safe patient handling moved to the national stage for the first time recently as a U.S. Senate subcommittee held a hearing on a bill that would create new injury prevention requirements.

SB 1788: Use lifts to 'greatest degree feasible'

The Nurse and Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2009 includes the following language requiring health care employers to purchase equipment for patient handling:

'OSHA is back,' targets HCW infections, injuries

Health care remains in the spotlight of an energized U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as the agency explores new regulations related to infectious diseases and requirements for injury and illness prevention programs.

Cal-OSHA cites hospital for meningitis exposure

The unprotected exposure of a respiratory therapist who later developed bacterial meningitis triggered the first citations under California's new Aerosol Transmissible Disease Standard with fines of $101,485, including two "willful" violations, the strongest possible penalty, against Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, CA. The medical center has appealed the citations, but did not reply to a request for comment as this story was being filed.

ED nurses seeking protection from violence

"Two dead in Tennessee Hospital Shooting" New York Times, April 19, 2010

Assaultive patient 'just tired of waiting'

For emergency room nurse Rita Anderson, RN, CEN, the assault was as sudden and unpredictable as a stroke of lightning.

Physical therapists slow to adopt lifts

For many years, "body mechanics" was the mantra of physical therapy. Position yourself correctly as you lift and you can avoid injury, the physical therapists said.

Best practice: Injuries drop with lift investment

A ream of statistics and studies may prove the benefits of safe patient handling. But at St. Mary's Hospital in Amsterdam, NY, equally compelling was the story of one patient a 450-pound woman who could not get out of the ambulance.

Hospital Employee Health – July 1, 2010

July 1, 2010