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News: Following an elective thyroidectomy, a woman was diagnosed with hypocalcemia. Although calcium was ordered, it was never administered to the woman, despite persistent symptoms of the calcium deficiency. The woman eventually went into cardiac arrest and sustained anoxic encephalopathy, becoming comatose.
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News: A man sustained lacerations to his right index finger and middle finger and was immediately taken to the emergency department (ED) of a local hospital, where a physician's assistant sutured the wound. The man returned to the hospital on three occasions, where hospital officials noted decreased extension in the man's long finger of his right hand.
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Have you stockpiled enough antiviral medication to provide doses for several hundred (or thousand) employees for about 80 days? Does your stockpile include more than one antiviral medication? Can you rotate it so it never expires?
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Antiviral resistance of one strain of influenza has altered this year's strategies for seasonal influenza. It also highlights mutability of the virus and the need for careful pandemic planning, federal health officials say.
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In its "Guidance on Antiviral Drug Use During an Influenza Pandemic", the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services places the responsibility for stockpiling for worker protection on employers. This is an excerpt that specifically addresses health care employers:
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With the youngest and tiniest patients, pediatrics hardly seems like a hot zone for patient handling injuries. Yet that assumption of safety is itself a hazard. Pediatric caregivers treating children, adolescents, and young adults may be at significant risk of injury.
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Streamlined protocols proposed by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration could make quantitative fit-testing more efficient.
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In a case that recalls the national turmoil during the Florida HIV dental outbreak in the early 1990s, investigators have determined that HIV provider-to-patient infections remain exceedingly rare.
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But the real game changer on UTI prevention came a bit earlier when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced effective October 2008 that it would halt payment on additional costs generated by UTIs and two other infections (mediastinitis, catheter-related vascular infections).
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In these tough economic times, it may seem like a luxury to go beyond the basics in employee health. But addressing the health needs of your workers from injury prevention to chronic disease management may be the smartest way to save money.
