The Workplace Safety Consultation (WSC) unit of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry undertook a collaborative project to provide ergonomics assistance to nursing homes to help management and workers reduce ergonomic risk factors and improve the safety of their workplaces.
The study can be found here.
It was noted in the report that work-related injuries and illnesses are very common among nursing home workers. In 2008,private industry nursing homes had an estimated 2,300 recordable injury and illness cases, 3 percent of the state’s total number of recordable cases. Private-sector nursing homes had a total OSHA-recordable case (TRC) rate of 7.6 cases per 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers in 2008, compared with an overall private sector rate of 4.2 cases per 100 FTE workers.
The intervention homes made more investments in their safety programs during the ergonomics services program, and generally had greater safety and health improvements. The intervention nursing homes reported a significant increase inthe number of electric lifts, while the controlhomes added very few new resident-handling devices. On each of the 36 measures made from the OSHA logs comparing the pre- and postservice case rates, the intervention homes showed larger absolute and percent decreases in their injury and illness rates.
As I have posted before, health care workers have a higher likelihood of sustaining certain injuries than that of construction, mining, and manufacturing workers. This can be associated to lifting, transferring and pushing patients.
If you have been injured on the job and denied benefits, contact an experienced workers’ compensation attorney to assist you. We at the Law Office of Thomas Mottaz would be more than happy to sit down with you and discuss your legal options. For free consultation, please visit our website here.
Nurses are in high demand in today’s world. The American Hospital Association (AHA), reported that the United States is almost 120,000 nurses short of what is required to meet the nation’s current health care needs. This mean nurses are often required to do more than what would typically be required.
It is reported that health care workers have a higher likelihood of sustaining a back injury than that of construction, mining, and manufacturing workers. This can be associated to lifting, transferring and pushing patients. Often times, patients are in awkward positions which cause a higher percent chance of injury.
The Department of Health and Human Services reports that the “direct and indirect costs associated with back injuries in the health care industry are estimated to be $20 billion annually. Additionally, nursing aides and orderlies suffer the highest prevalence (18.8%) and report the most annual cases (269,000) of work-related back pain is among the highest of female workers in the United States. In 2000, 10,983 registered nurses (RNs) suffered lost-time work injuries due to lifting patients. Twelve percent of those nurses report that they left the nursing profession because of back pain.”
