Items Tagged with 'Health care worker safety'

Silver Spring, MD — Global Nurses United is demanding stronger COVID-19 guidance from the World Health Organization, including a call for more personal protective equipment for health care workers and acknowledgement from WHO on how the virus is spread.

San Francisco — The Washington State Nurses Association is among four labor unions suing Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia and OSHA in an effort to compel the agency to move forward with rulemaking on an infectious diseases standard that would require employers in the health care industry to protect workers from exposure to harmful infectious diseases such as COVID-19, Ebola and influenza.

Sacramento, CA — A bill signed into law Sept. 29 by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) will require certain hospitals in the state to create and maintain at least a three-month supply of personal protective equipment, and ensure nurses and other health care workers use the PPE supplied to them.

Washington — NIOSH has extended until Dec. 14 the comment period for a Request for Information on the deployment and use of elastomeric half-mask respirators in health care settings and emergency medical services organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Boston — A universal masking policy for employees at Mass General Brigham led to a significant decrease in the rate of COVID-19 infections among workers, results of a recent study by researchers at the health system show.

Boston — Employers in the health care industry need to ensure adequate availability of personal protective equipment and develop additional strategies to protect their frontline workers from COVID-19, a team of researchers has concluded after finding that health care workers in the United States and United Kingdom were at least three times more likely than the general public to report being infected – even after accounting for other risk factors – during the first several weeks of the pandemic.

West Lafayette, IN — Researchers from Purdue University have developed new designs for N95 facemasks they say will extend the shelf life of the respiratory protection commonly used by health care workers.

Washington — The Department of Health and Human Services has reopened until Sept. 25 the comment period on an interim final rule that allows NIOSH to approve a new class of powered air-purifying respirators for workers in the health care and public safety sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic, among other changes.

Silver Spring, MD — More than 3 out of 4 nurses say their employer isn’t providing a safe workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic, results of a recent National Nurses United survey indicate – a finding the labor union claims underlines the impact of businesses “reopening too soon.”

Lansing, MI — Michigan OSHA is increasing its presence in hospitals as part of a recently launched state emphasis program aimed at ensuring health care employers are providing workers who care for COVID-19 patients with the personal protective equipment they need, the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity has announced.