This post, Is texting at work acceptable for nurses?, first appeared on https://www.nurse.com/. A nurse reader asked what she should do about a personal text message she sent to her husband’s ex-wife. The reader did not include what she sent the ex-wife, but whatever the message, her employer charged her with “improper telephone communication” for texting at work. The reader’s supervisor told her the ex-wife personally came to the hospital to complain about the text […]

This post, Facing Escalating Workplace Violence, Hospital Employees Have Had Enough, first appeared on https://www.npr.org/. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, incidents of serious workplace violence are four times more common in health care than in private industry. Most assaults come from patients and patients’ families.   Across the U.S., many doctors, nurses and other health care workers have remained silent about what is being called an epidemic of violence against them.   The […]

This post, Designing a Better Ambulance, first appeared on https://www.emsworld.com. Today’s ambulances are far from perfect. For instance, “the cab area is filled with operational distractions and frequently too crowded for comfort or safety,” says Tracey Loscar, EMS operations chief for the Mat-Su Borough Department of Emergency Services in Wasilla, Alaska. “Meanwhile, the patient compartment has limited ability to protect the crew from impact injuries, specifically closed head injuries.” But what if ambulances could be […]

This post, A Secure Healthcare Prescription, first appeared on https://securitytoday.com. Hospitals are improving security, operational efficiencies, and patient safety By Courtney Dillon   Pedersen Hospitals and other healthcare facilities face unique security and surveillance challenges. These often large, multi-building/multi-level facilities operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, year-round—there is no downtime allowed for their operation.   In most cases, these environments are fairly open with staff members, patients and their families, vendors, emergency […]

This post, Four ways to manage healthcare waste sustainably, first appeared on https://www.eco-business.com. The progress of modern medicine in the recent years has been astounding. A wearable pancreas is already increasingly common, continuously monitoring blood sugar levels and dispensing insulin as needed. Soon, we may even be able to finely edit our DNA, using molecular scissors to snip out genetic defects. But as global healthcare charges forward, it leaves behind a waste crisis waiting to explode. […]

This post, Accidental Needlesticks: The Silent Killer, first appeared on https://www.physiciansweekly.com. By Karen Daley   We all know that doctors and nurses work long hours under trying conditions, particularly in hospital emergency rooms, to save lives and bring healing and comfort to the sick.   What too many people do not know is that healthcare workers face a potential silent killer every day that is so common it is routinely overlooked and ignored: accidental needlesticks.   […]

This post, Why HIPAA matters: The toll of privacy breaches and compromised health data, first appeared on https://www.dentistryiq.com. Knowledge is power, and nowadays this is truer than ever. The move to a digital economy has facilitated the explosion of information consumption. Knowledge about customers, patients, and employees has enabled health-care organizations to personalize products and services and make decisions that meet their needs, but perhaps not the needs of their patients. The insights health-care entities have […]

This post, Physicians report most sharps injuries among health care workers, data shows, first appeared on https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com. Physicians have surpassed nurses as the occupational group with the highest percentage of reported sharps injuries, recent data from the International Safety Center shows. Researchers analyzed 2016 surveillance data from hospitals that voluntarily participate in ISC’s Exposure Prevention Information Network, a service that tracks occupational exposures in the health care industry. They found that 34.2 percent of workers […]

This post, Wyoming Seeks to Repeal Hospital Privacy Regulation for HIPAA Clarity, first appeared on https://healthitsecurity.com. Wyoming state senators recently proposed a bill that would clarify regulations around patient privacy in the state. Introduced on Tuesday, the legislation would repeal the state’s Hospital Records Act of 1991, which was designed to protect patient privacy rights in regards their medical records. The state law sought to provide patients with protections that federal laws did not cover, as […]

This post, Collaboration and innovation key to stemming risks for shift worker health and safety, first appeared on https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com. The ongoing demand for round-the-clock services fuels many industries. Enter shift work, which is a way of life for nearly 15 million Americans, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows. The prevalence of shift work has spurred multiple studies on its potential adverse effects on employee health and safety. Among the studies is 2017 research […]