Hospital Employee Health – December 1, 2015
December 1, 2015
View Issues
-
PPE use contaminates workers as training, compliance lax
Research spurred by the Ebola crisis continues to reveal that healthcare workers are poorly trained in the use of personal protective equipment, frequently contaminating themselves with pathogens that can endanger their personal health and subsequent patient contacts.
-
Ebola, chronic PPE woes give OSHA momentum for infectious disease rule
Whether you are pro regulation or not, it is hard to imagine that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will find a better time than the present to issue its long-awaited infectious disease rule to protect healthcare workers.
-
Healthcare workers on antibiotics at risk of Clostridium difficile
With C. diff at epidemic levels, workers may acquire the bug from patients if they take antibiotics that wipe out the commensal bacteria in the gut and open a path for the pathogen.
-
EPINet relaunch: New leadership, expanding mission to go beyond hepatitis, HIV exposures
The International Healthcare Worker Safety Center has made a dramatic transition to an independent non-profit center that is widening the net beyond bloodborne pathogens to include worker exposures to Clostridium difficile and MRSA.
-
Expert report: PPE changes, confusion preceded Dallas nurses’ Ebola infections
Healthcare workers trying to save a patient dying of Ebola last year at a Dallas hospital were confused and “lost confidence” trying to protect themselves with PPE guidelines that were in flux at that critical time, an expert investigative panel concluded.