OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, exists to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance. According to the OSHA website, “In 2017, the healthcare and social assistance industry reported more injury and illness cases than any other private industry sector — 582,800 cases (2017 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, BLS). That is 153,900 more cases than the next industry sector, manufacturing.”
OSHA's website has many helpful and informative resources for healthcare organizations, including information on a Culture of Safety, Safe Patient Handling, and Infectious Diseases. We encourage you to explore the site for information, and want to especially call attention to this page, which embeds in-depth information and useful tools.
One such tool is “How Safe Is Your Hospital for Workers?“, a fillable questionnaire to help you gather key information from your facility, find out how safe your workplace is, how much your hospital spends on worker injuries and illnesses, what programs are in place to address the problem, and how you compare with other hospitals nationwide.
Take a few minutes to read this document and answer the questions — It may help you lead your organization to higher levels of safety, quality and satisfaction.
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