On Jan. 15, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels hosted a press teleconference to launch a new educational Web resource with extensive materials to help hospitals prevent worker injuries, assess workplace safety needs, enhance safe patient handling programs and implement safety and health management systems.
"These new materials can help prevent hospital worker injuries and improve patient safety, while reducing costs," said Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. "The heart of this material are the lessons from high performing hospitals who have implemented best practices to reduce workplace injuries while also improving patient safety."
Joining Dr. Michaels on the call were Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; Dr. Lucian Leape, chairman of the Lucian Leape Institute at the National Patient Safety Foundation; and Dr. Erin S. DuPree, chief medical officer and vice president of the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare.
"By fostering research to identify injury risk factors and safety interventions, steps can be taken to save costs and enhance service to the patients," said Dr. Howard.
OSHA's new Worker Safety in Hospitals Web page provides detailed educational material about worker safety in hospitals, as well as easy to use products on implementing safety and health management systems. The website also contains information to help prevent the most common type of injuries in hospitals – injuries from manually lifting and moving patients. The guidance products include fact books, self-assessments, best practices guides. The website and materials are available at www.osha.gov/dsg/hospitals.
