Occupational Health Management 2011-05-01

Being there: Building a trusting relationship with your workers

Honest answer: Do employees consider you to be trustworthy?

Reassure workers that health info is confidential

Fear that their health and medical information will be shared with others is usually the "biggest concern" that employees have," says Judy A. Garrett, health services manager at Syngenta Crop Protection in Greensboro, NC.

Get out "where the action is" during walkthroughs

Violations of Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards may be occurring in plain sight, but someone has to go look in order to find them.

Check please. List helps walkthroughs

Use a checklist that is unique to your work environment when doing safety walkthroughs, advises Rod R. Hart, RN, COHN, manager of health promotion and wellness at ODS Health, a Portland, OR-based provider of health plans.

Improve respiratory safety with 5 steps

Most violations of Occupational Safety and Health Administration's respiratory protection standard are from wearing respirators without the required employee elements completed prior to use, says Mary Gene Ryan, BSN, MPH, RN, COHN-S/SM, FAAOHN, executive director of MGRyan & Co. Inc., a Ventura, CA-based occupational health and safety consulting firm.

How to stop spread of misinformation

Is someone in your workplace claiming that occupational health programs are a waste of money and resources?

Education key to fewer MSD injuries

Musculoskeletal injuries are a large driver of injuries here," reports Janice Hartgens, UPS's corporate occupational health manager. For this reason, she says, the company's Knee, Back and Shoulder Injury Prevention program gives workers specific ways to prevent these injuries.

Pay attention to what workers are doing right

A driver stops his truck, pulls the key out of the ignition, steps out of the vehicle holding onto the handrail, uses a load stand to get closer to the top of the trailer, selects a package, and closes the door. If a UPS driver does all of this using safe practices, he or she is going to hear about it.

Take the 'pulse' of your safety culture

The first step toward building a safety culture may be taking the "pulse" of the one you've already got. Do your employees believe that managers care about employee safety? Do they feel comfortable alerting managers to hazards? Do they use personal protective equipment when it's recommended?

ACIP: Vaccinate all HCWs against pertussis

Hospitals should provide pertussis vaccines to their health care workers free of charge, but should still treat employees with antibiotics if they have unprotected exposure to patients with pertussis and work with patients at high risk, such as young infants, a federal vaccine advisory panel says.

Back injury claims drop with no-lift law

The carrot and the stick have worked in Washington state to reduce the number and severity of safe patient handling injuries.

Occupational Health Management Archives – May 1, 2011

May 1, 2011