Hospital Workplace Safety

Despite their emphasis on health and wellness, medical facilities are considered some of the most hazardous workplaces in the country. There were 221,400 work-related injuries and illnesses recorded in United States hospitals in 2019 alone, equating to approximately 5.5 afflictions for every 100 full-time staff members. With so many annual workplace accidents, hospitals must employ necessary measures to minimize safety risks and maximize staff well-being.

Health care facilities are turning to safety and wellness promotion methods to maintain employee health and well-being in the workplace. When you join in the movement to improve your work environment, you’ll boost employee satisfaction and generate better patient experiences.

Tips for Maintaining Workplace Safety and Well-Being in Your Medical Facility

Health and wellness are of the utmost importance for visitors and hospital personnel. When your medical staff is happy, healthy and safe, they can provide better care for your patients.

If you’re looking to improve workplace safety and well-being in your medical facility, consider implementing the following tactics into your daily practices.

Develop a Proactive Risk Reduction System

The first step in solving workplace safety issues is identifying your facility’s prominent issues. An easy way to determine common hazards is to survey staff members about any on-site injuries they’ve endured. Once you can pinpoint your biggest risks, you can better devise a plan to minimize them — also known as creating safety and health management systems.

Safety health and management systems are proactive processes that address workplace hazards before they impact personnel. For example, if any of your employees have slipped and fallen on wet tile, you might resolve this by establishing faster cleanup policies or implementing more cautionary floor signs. If your personnel frequently succumbs to pathogens like influenza, you could invest in a disinfection robot to sterilize hospital rooms.

Though the main goal of these collaborative plans is to protect health care workers, they can also save hospitals money, boost risk management efficiency and improve the quality of care for patients.

Encourage Incident Reporting and Record-Keeping

It can be challenging to accurately identify workplace hazards if hospital employees don’t follow incident reporting procedures. Studies show that many emergency room nurses fail to formally report physical violence and verbal abuse from patients, but rather notify security personnel, supervisors and other nurses. Improper practices make it harder for hospital administrators to understand staff safety issues fully.

You can improve safety policies and risk management techniques by encouraging your employees to formally report all accidents and injuries in the workplace. You can accomplish this goal by implementing mandatory reporting policies and easy-to-understand reporting systems.

Implement Safe Patient Handling Programs

Patient handling is one of the primary causes of long-term staff injuries in health care facilities. Patient handling activities, such as lifting, reaching and bending, often result in physical overexertion, especially for older health care workers who are more susceptible to injury. These instances can also result in patient injuries like falls, contusions, pressure ulcers and skin tears. That’s why hospitals must incorporate safe patient handling programs.

You can improve patient handling in your facility by investing in patient lifting equipment, implementing ergonomic patient handling procedures, conducting training sessions or hiring trained lift teams. These techniques are beneficial for minimizing staff and patient injuries, reducing downtime and lowering worker compensation claims in the workplace.

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Maintain a Sterile Work Environment

Sanitizing your medical equipment properly ensures that surgical instruments do not transmit infectious pathogens to health care workers and patients. Autoclave sterilization is one of the only guaranteed ways to eliminate and minimize the spread of microorganisms in medical facilities with nearly 100% effectiveness.

With surgical sterilization containers like trays and cases, you can disinfect your medical tools with powerful autoclave sterilization and safeguard your staff and patients from harmful bacteria, viruses, infections and diseases. Medical-grade sterilization solutions can endure the harsh effects of autoclaves without corrosion, resulting in longer-lasting use.

When your instruments are sterile, workers will feel safer handling them, and patients can feel safe from surgical contamination.

Optimize Staff Scheduling

Health care professionals work long hours, which causes worker fatigue and overexertion on the job and increases safety risks for both staff members and patients. You can ensure that your employees perform at their best by implementing strategic scheduling.

To improve employee health and well-being, consider scheduling shorter shifts, enforcing more manageable nurse-to-patient ratios and improving staffing. When your personnel has more reasonable schedules and expectations, you reduce the risk of medical errors, improve patient satisfaction and reduce nurse fatigue and burnout.

Enhance Hospital Workplace Safety With Medical Sterilization Containers From Jewel Precision

Promote a sterile, safe work environment with sterilization container systems from Jewel Precision. We develop autoclave-compatible medical equipment cases and trays comprising only the most durable materials and innovative features, providing health care facilities with simple and effective storage, handling and organization solutions they can trust.

Tips for Maintaining Workplace Safety in Your Medical Facility