OSHA Launches New Website For Hospital Staff Safety

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently launched a new website designated strictly for work-related injuries in hospitals and other care facilities. Most people don't think of hospitals as being a hazardous workplace. However, the OSHA claims that 253,700 hospital injuries occurred in 2011, which is nearly twice the injury rate as other private industries.

The OSHA hopes to improve these numbers with the launch of their new website, https://www.osha.gov/dsg/hospitals/. Here, nurses, doctors, caregivers and other hospital staff can access information on how to care a safe working environment. Some of the topics currently covered on the new website include the following:

• Identifying common hazards in the hospital
• Safe patient handling
• MSD assessment
• Management support
• Policies
• Program evaluation
• Education and training
• Patient needs assessment
• and a variety of other helpful tools...

David Michaels of OSHA said the following,

"We urge all hospital executives that are ready to protect workers, enhance patient safety and save money to go to our website, take the self assessment … (and) compare your hospital with benchmarks from high-performing hospitals,"

One of the most common types of work-related injuries in hospitals is muscle strains due to improper patient lifting. Far too many nurses and hospital staff lift patients using their back. Constantly bending your back day after day will gradually take a toll on the muscles and tendons here, resulting in chronic back pain. The OSHA website details the correct way to lift patients using machines rather than by hand.

When hospital employees are injured and forced to miss work, the cost can become staggering. Along with the direct profits lost by the hospital, patients' employers also lose money from increased time spent at the hospital. For instance, a typical patient might spend 3 days in the hospital for a broken bone. If the hospital is short staffed, however, their time spent here may increase to 5, 6 or even 7 days.

It's important to note that the new OSHA website doesn't include any new guidelines or regulations for hospital workers. Instead, it's designed to serve as an informational hub where workers can learn more about safe practices. The same OSHA regulations still apply, but this new website doesn't add any into the mix.

Let's hope the OSHA website is able to improve the numbers of work-related hospital injuries. Protecting our nation's caregivers is essential to creating a functional, fluent healthcare system, which is why the OSHA places such a heavy emphasis on this topic.