No site of mine would be complete if I left out Healthcare Safety and Security. After all, this is my own area of expertise! I have been involved in this field for 14 years now, and I have found it the most rewarding, as well as the most frustrating, occupation I could have chosen.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in 1988, when I first began my career in healthcare Safety and Security, hospitals employed approximately 4.5 million of the 8 million healthcare workers in the United States. By the 1997 census this number had grown by 19.5%.

No other workplace is as multifaceted as a hospital. Not only does it provide care for our patients, but often it is used as a teaching and research center as well. And, the list of potential hazards includes, among other things, radiation, hazardous and toxic chemicals, biological hazards, heat, noise, dusts, stress, and violence.

I always refer to my hospital as a small city. We face almost all of the same problems that a small city would, and then some. Just take a look at the links just to OSHA in this paragraph and scattered about in the following article. These regulations are just from one government agency. 

The EPA, NFPA, and State and Local regulations all regulate healthcare facilities. And there are numerous voluntary agencies, such as the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), that also oversee the safety of hospitals and nursing homes. All of this together makes healthcare one of the most regulated industries in the United States.

What Kinds of Hazards?

We like to think of hospitals as nice, clean, safe places to work. And, for the most part, they are. However, healthcare workers face many hazards daily, many that the average worker in the United States may never see, and many that are identical to those found in other industries. For example -

Maintenance workers face potentially hazardous exposures to solvents, asbestos, and electrical hazards. Persons working in or around boiler rooms are regularly exposed to high levels of noise and heat. Falls are common, as are back and other forms of muscle and spinal injuries.

Housekeepers are exposed to detergents and disinfectants that may cause skin rashes and eye and throat irritation. They risk exposure to hepatitis and other diseases from hypodermic needles and other sharp instruments that have not been discarded properly. Sprains and strains are also common problems for housekeepers.

Food service workers face problems such as cuts from sharp-edged equipment, burns from hot surfaces and steam lines, falls on slippery floors, strains and sprains from pushing and pulling food carts, and fatigue and stress from long periods of standing on hard surfaces. Nonionizing radiation from poorly maintained microwave ovens is potentially dangerous. Rashes and allergic reactions from fresh foods, detergents, and humidity are also common, and excessive exposure to noise and heat has been documented.

Registered nurses, (RN’s), nurse practitioners, and licensed vocational/licensed practical nurses (LVN’s/LPN’s), and other nursing personnel confront such potential problems as exposure to infectious diseases and toxic substances, back injuries, allergic reactions to latex, and radiation exposure. Nurses also deal with less obvious hazards resulting from stress and shift work. And we cannot forget about violence, nursing personnel face this every day on the job.

Technicians in the radiology department are potentially exposed to radiation from X-rays and radioactive isotopes. Even with the adequate maintenance of equipment, risks can result from poor work practices (such as holding babies and toddlers under a radiation beam without adequate self-protection) or from infectious diseases transmitted to them by their patients. They may also be exposed to chemical hazards, such as developing or cleaning fluids.

Operating-room workers (both female and male, and the wives of male workers) may face the increased risk of reproductive problems as a result of exposure to waste anesthetic gases. They are also subject to cuts and puncture wounds, infection, radiation, and electrical and explosion hazards. Advances in surgical procedures, such a the use of lasers, has presented a whole new list of hazards for surgical personnel. 

The list of hazards really does go on, and on. For example, a NIOSH survey conducted in 1985 revealed 159 known primary skin or eye irritants used in hospitals and 135 chemicals that are potentially carcinogenic, teratogenic, mutagenic, or a combination of these. 

The hazards that healthcare workers face grows each day with new technology and advancements in the treatment of new diseases. But we are prepared. Within a few weeks I will revise this page to outline how hospitals and nursing homes have met, and will continue to meet,  the challenges presented by the variety of workplace hazards that their facilities present. I hope this brief overview has given you a new and better understanding of what healthcare safety is really all about, and what the care givers face each day to care for their patients.