Injury Among Direct Healthcare Staff-An Unheralded Occupational Safety Health Crisis

摘要

During 2003, the 25 most hazardous occupations in the U.S. recorded occupational injury rates ranging between 10.7 and 16.7 [BLS(a)]. Knowing this, imagine explaining to an organization's general manager why the incident rate of injury among employees in his company is over 32. That's right, 32 of every 100 employees have suffered an injury that warranted medical treatment or caused them to miss a day or more of work. This is the predicament faced by many public intermediate care facilities. Public intermediate care facilities for people with mental retardation (ICFMRs) are those healthcare facilities in the U.S. which provide residential care and treatment for those persons having intellectual deficits and related developmental disabilities. A survey conducted in 2004 by the Worker Health and Safety Program (WHSP), administratively located in the Division of Health, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW), revealed the average rate of injury among direct healthcare staff working in today's ICFMRs is 32.7. Put in another context, the rate of injury among direct healthcare staff working in these facilities is twice that of metal foundries workers and almost three times that of workers in the meat processing industry, both workforces of comparable size.