Occupational Health and Safety Management in Hospitals

This article discusses the responsibilities of supervisors and workers in maintaining occupational health and safety in hospitals. It also covers the five components of health and safety management system and the importance of strategic planning for occupational health and safety. Course code and college/university are not mentioned.

1. In hospital, supervisors are responsible for various duties such as, food services,
house-keeping services and laundry services. They must ensure the health and
safety of all the workers. They need to handle several responsibilities and they are
as follows:
 Conducting orientation and training of employees: Training is important
for them to understand the ways to work with the equipments properly in a
safe manner.
 Enforcing safe work practices: In order to avoid accidents, supervisors
must enforce safety.
 Preventing and correcting workplace hazards: It is the duty of supervisors
to remind employees about the ways to prevent hazards.
 Investigating workplace accidents: In order to ensure the number of
occupationally injured employees, supervisors must investigate properly.
 Promoting quick return to work: Injured employees, who are on leave in
the organization, must be encouraged to return to the work (National
Institute of Health Office of Management, n.d.).
2. In order to maintain the occupational health and safety, workers also play a vital
role. They also have several responsibilities and they are as follows:
 Following the guidelines: Following the safety guidelines of any
organization is always a duty of the workers.
 Gaining enough knowledge: Before handling equipments, workers should
get enough knowledge in order to avoid accidents.
 Reporting immediately: If workers find any hazards, they should report to
the supervisor immediately.

 Obeying the supervisor: Maintaining a good relationship and obeying the
supervisor is necessary to maintain a safe working environment.
 Updating regularly: A regular update of the working practices can be
helpful to avoid hazards (Health and Safety Management in Healthcare,
2010).
3. There are five different components of health and safety management system.
 Identification of workplace hazards: If any health hazards occur among the
workers, while working in the workplace then that should be identified
properly.
 Occupational health and safety training: There should be an arrangement
of training for the workers about the health and safety in the workplace.
 Workplace inspections: A regular inspection of workplace safety should be
done. It will help to identify hazards if any.
 Accident investigation: If any accident occurs in the workplace, then
proper investigation should be done to measure the actual amount of loss.
 Accident reporting: Workers should report the occurrence of accidents to
their supervisor immediately (Loeppke et al., 2015).
4. According to Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Act, all the components of
health and safety management system are necessary. It helps to identify the
actually causes of health hazards of the employees which in turn, provides an idea
to prevent that. The components are helpful in developing a positive working
culture in the workplace. Inspection, investigation and reporting of accidents are
highly necessary in keeping all the workers safe (Sinelnikov, Inouye & Kerper,
2015).

5. Supervisors should prepare strategic planning or metrics to help the employees
with the occupational health and safety law in the hospital area. They should
conduct a meeting make all the workers aware of the act. Apart from that,
arranging proper training session for the workers about the health and safety law
will also be helpful in avoiding the workplace safety hazards among the workers
(Sinelnikov, Inouye & Kerper, 2015).

References
Health and Safety Management in Healthcare. (2010). Information sheet. Retrieved from
https://www.hsa.ie/eng/Publications_and_Forms/Publications/Healthcare_Sector/
Health_and_Safety_Management_in_Healthcare.pdf
Loeppke, R. R., Hohn, T., Baase, C., Bunn, W. B., Burton, W. N., Eisenberg, B. S., ... &
Hymel, P. A. (2015). Integrating health and safety in the workplace: how closely
aligning health and safety strategies can yield measurable benefits. Journal of
occupational and environmental medicine, 57(5), 585-597. Retrieved from
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8be5/03edb2dae0b837fa12fd2a4003ff3cdd29e9.pdf
National Institute of Health Office of Management. (n.d.). Division of Occupational Health
and Safety. Retrieved from
https://www.ors.od.nih.gov/sr/dohs/HealthAndWellness/Pages/Safety-
Responsibilities-for-Supervisors.aspx
Sinelnikov, S., Inouye, J., & Kerper, S. (2015). Using leading indicators to measure
occupational health and safety performance. Safety science, 72, 240-248. Retrieved
from
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/76a8/881087d69d0f1f30bad551de7ee30d07a74b.pdf