Because of age or incapacitation due to illness or injury, patients in health care settings often need help performing normal daily tasks like sitting up or walking. Helping patients with these tasks requires significant physical demands, putting employees in danger of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).
On Feb. 21, 2024, Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group (UHG) and one of the largest platforms for managing health insurance billing and payments in the United States, experienced a large-scale cyberattack. This attack forced the company to shut down over 100 services across its system for multiple weeks, affecting millions of health care providers and patients across the country.
Workplace violence in the healthcare industry has been declining, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely absent from hospitals and other medical clinics. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost half of non-fatal injuries from occupational assaults and violence occur in healthcare and social services settings.
In February 2024, hackers initiated a cyberattack against Change Healthcare, a leading health claims processing provider in North America that processes approximately 15 billion health care transactions annually.
Many medical devices contain configurable embedded computer systems that can be vulnerable to cyber security breaches. In addition, as medical devices are increasingly interconnected via the Internet, hospital networks, other medical devices or smartphones, there is an increased risk of cybersecurity breaches, which could affect how a medical device operates.
The health and safety of your residents should be your top priority, so it is important that your facility is proactive in ensuring that the proper fire safety precautions are in place.
In October 2020, the University of Vermont (UVM) Health Network—a six-hospital health care organization that serves over 1 million patients throughout Vermont and upstate New York discovered that its systems had been compromised by cybercriminals in a ransomware attack.
Cyber incidents—including data breaches, ransomware attacks and social engineering scams—have become increasingly prevalent over the past decade, impacting organizations of all sizes and industries.
Employee mental health has become a workplace topic of increased focus and awareness in recent years. An employee’s mental health includes how they think, feel and act, and their emotional and social well-being. While mental health includes mental illness, these two concepts aren’t interchangeable. For example, an employee can go through a period of poor mental health but not necessarily have a diagnosable mental illness. Additionally, an employee’s mental health can change over time, depending on factors such as their workload, stress and work-life balance.
Strategies, when implemented effectively, can contribute to a safer and more reliable healthcare environment for patients and healthcare providers.
