OSHA asks healthcare employers to reduce worker injuries
An effective way to combat workplace injury and illness, said OSHA, is to create and use a proactive safety and health program.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. healthcare workers experienced a whopping 249% increase in injury and illness rates in 2020 while serving patients. In fact, workers in the healthcare and social-assistance industries combined suffered more injuries and illnesses than workers in any industry in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
In anticipation of National Caregivers Day on Feb. 18, OSHA is calling on healthcare employers and those in related industries to take immediate actions to help make 2022 less hazardous and reduce worker injuries and illnesses.
According to the agency, healthcare workers face many risks, including those related to exposure to blood-borne pathogens, drug residue, x-ray machines, respiratory illnesses and ergonomic injuries linked to repetitive tasks such as lifting patients.
WHAT'S THE IMPACT?
An effective way to combat workplace injury and illness, said OSHA, is to create and use a proactive safety and health program to address hazards and to endorse training and preventive measures that keep workers safe.
To illustrate this, the agency pointed to Kansas' Community Hospital Onaga – part of Community HealthCare System's nonprofit health system – which succeeded in improving the safety and health of its workers. In 2000, the hospital in rural northeast Kansas contacted OSHA's On-Site Consultation Program about enhancing workplace safety. Visits by the Kansas Department of Labor's On-Site Consultation program soon began.
Following those visits, Community Hospital succeeded in correcting all hazards inspectors identified, and it continued to improve its safety and health programs. By December 2002, OSHA's Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program awarded the facility "SHARP" status, one of only two Kansas hospitals in the program.
The facility has kept injury and illness rates below the industry average since 2002. As a result, OSHA has renewed Community Hospital's SHARP status eight times, most recently in June 2021.
"Participating in OSHA's Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program helps companies anticipate hazards and take initiative," said OSHA's acting Regional Administrator Ryan Hodge in Kansas City, Missouri. "As COVID-19 spread, Community HealthCare System implemented a plan to protect employees and clients. Other healthcare systems can follow their model by encouraging a mindset that anticipates and addresses hazards before they cause harm."
THE LARGER TREND
In addition to the routine risks faced by healthcare workers, workplace violence in hospitals has become a more pressing issue in recent years, so much so that the union National Nurses United wants federal prevention standards that mirror California legislation, which is considered the gold standard.
In 2019, after seven years of effort, HR 1309, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, proposed by Representative Joe Courtney, D-Conn., passed in the U.S. House of Representatives with bipartisan support. It was never passed by the Senate, but the union still hopes the Biden administration will take it up at some point.
The proposed federal legislation pertains not only to hospitals, but also to facilities such as Veterans' Affairs, the Indian Health Service and home-based hospice. The law would require OSHA to develop workplace-violence-prevention standards that would include, among other mandates, that IV poles be stationary so they cannot be used as weapons.
The bill directs OSHA to issue new standards requiring healthcare and social service employers to write and implement a workplace-violence-prevention plan to prevent and protect employees from violent incidents and assaults at work.
Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: jeff.lagasse@himssmedia.com
