Health And Safety Management Systems Are Effective In Controlling Risks And Preventing Harm

Health And Safety Management Systems Are Effective In Controlling Risks And Preventing Harm

Introduction

Safety is the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational, or other types or consequences of failure. With the increase in worldwide terrorism incidents, hospital disaster plans need to be scrutinized to ensure they include preparedness elements that are unique to weapons of mass destruction (WMD) incidents. The practice of emergency planning varies considerably among hospital facilities. The nature of the hospital planning process reflects a facility's size, functions, and resources. Larger health care facilities have more resources and personnel and greater organizational complexity in medical specialization. Such hospitals tend to create formalized processes and rely more heavily on written plans and interagency agreements. Smaller facilities may adopt an informal process based on personal relationships and produce few written documents. Communities with a high frequency of hazard impacts—hurricanes along the Gulf Coast or earthquakes in California— are also likely to have a formalized planning process, even in smaller jurisdictions. The threat of WMD transcends these patterns because of the difficulty in predicting such events and the lack of geographic or seasonal focus. Even standard planning practices need modification to account for WMD threats. For example, the hospital itself or its staff may be targets; patients will arrive at the hospital with little or no warning (patients also converge on facilities closest to the scene, if there is a scene); many patients will be self-referred without treatment by emergency medical personnel at a scene; patients may need to be decontaminated at the hospital; the hospital building, equipment, and personnel can become contaminated; information regarding the nature and hazard of the agent will not be immediately available to hospital staff; and many patients will be present as “worried well,” having little or no exposure to the agent. These and other circumstances dictate that conventional planning may not be adequate to meet the demands posed by a WMD incident.

Discussion

Occupational health and safety is the field pertaining to the health and safety of the workforce. This field has been of societal concern since ancient times. The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus describes the treatment of injuries that were incurred by workers at the pyramid site in ancient Egypt (3000-2500 B.C.). Bernardino Ramazzini published the first Western textbook of occupational medicine in 1713. The pioneering work of Dr. Alice Hamilton in the 1920s served as a second of the initial steps toward the recognition of the field of Occupational Health and Safety in the United States.

Approximately 6,500 fatalities and 3,200,000 nonfatal injuries occur in the United States each year as a result of occupational injuries. In addition, there are about 862,200 occupational-related illnesses and 60,300 fatalities from occupational-related illnesses annually. Acute trauma is the leading cause of death and disability at work. Between 1980 and 1995, there were 16 deaths per day from trauma at work. Data from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health ...