Hospital work often requires coping with some of the most stressful situations found in any workplace. On a daily basis, you must deal with life-threatening illnesses and injuries, tight schedules, paperwork, intricate equipment, demanding patients and death. Taking steps to relieve job-related stress is important to protect your mental and physical health as well as to ensure success on the job.
Active involvement with patients is the first step to avoiding medical malpractice. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 7,000 people die each year from medication errors in hospitals. Avoiding these serious mistakes starts with you, the health care professional.
High-profile cyber attacks on companies such as Target and Sears have raised awareness of the growing threat of cyber crime. Recent surveys conducted by the Small Business Authority, Symantec, Kaspersky Lab and the National Cybersecurity Alliance suggest that many small business owners are still operating under a false sense of cyber security.
The risk that hand, wrist and finger injuries pose in health care settings is unique because it is associated with another, more serious risk: that of infection with diseases like Hepatitis B and C or HIV. Even injuries that do not result in infection bear the psychological trauma of waiting for definitive test results.
In recent years, active assailant incidents have become a growing concern across the United States. Most recently at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, a doctor’s office at Saint Francis in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and at a 4th of July Parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
Because of age or incBecause 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).apacitation 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).
Employee well-being refers to the overall state of employees’ physical, mental, social and financial health, which can often be influenced by various workplace dynamics (e.g., workload, connections with co-workers and available resources).
Telemedicine, which the American Telemedicine Association defines as “the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve a patient’s clinical health status,” promises to transform the landscape of health care. Due to the growing population of the elderly, the increasing demand for health care services and the rapid advances in telecommunications technology, a roaring market demand for telemedicine has been created along with the means of satisfying it.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) keeps records not only of the most frequently cited standards overall, but also within particular industries. The most recent statistics from OSHA reveal the top standards cited in the fiscal year 2021 for the health care and social assistance industry.
As a director or officer at your company, you face litigation risks based on the decisions you make following a breach and on how you influence cybersecurity policies, as these are often considered board-level issues.
