Health care industry to be first beneficiary of new safety network

Health care institutions that want to compare their safety and health experiences with aggregate data from other facilities can sign up for a new service.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has created a surveillance system that allows facilities to assess the impact of their prevention efforts on occupational health and safety over time.

Called the Occupational Health Safety Network, the system is a "voluntary and secure electronic" system. The first version is focused on noninfectious occupational safety and health issues among health care personnel.

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The network works as follows:

Workplaces enter incident data into their current occupational health software/databases.
Data are exported to OHSN monthly using Standard Occupational Data Architecture.
OHSN produces timely customized feedback and annual reports of aggregate data.
Workplaces and NIOSH work together to monitor trends.
Prevention strategies are identified and implemented.

"OHSN will harmonize core occupational health data elements into one surveillance system to integrate the existing patchwork of occupational safety and health surveillance activities within individual health care facilities into a uniform surveillance strategy," according to NIOSH. "At the institutional level, OHSN will simplify facilities' data entry demands; while at the national level, OHSN will help achieve the goal of widespread compatibility in occupational safety and health surveillance data among U.S. health care facilities."

In addition, the system will provide a forum to share lessons learned about preventing traumatic injuries among health care personnel.

Enrollment in the system begins this year and is open to all types of ambulatory and inpatient health care facilities such as acute care hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, outpatient dialysis centers, ambulatory surgery centers, outpatient clinics, and long-term care facilities.

Read more at the WorkersComp Forum homepage.

April 9, 2012

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