Safety and Environmental Management of Hospital Projects - Term Paper Example

Student Name: Instructor Name: Unit Name: Date: Topic: Safety and Environmental management of Hospital projects INTRODUCTION Safety and Environmental management is an important aspect of every industry. Therefore, a company that has many employees like the hospital settings, where there are thousands of workers, the issues of health and safety should be paramount. This will ensure that production and provision of services done in a safe working environment that eliminates all the risks of accidents to both employees and clients. Looking at the hospital situation which has more than 1,000 employees, this paper seeks to discuss some of the health and safety issues that arise from managing the hospital environment. It deals with the details of the types of programs and systems that need to be implemented in order to maintain environmental compliance within the hospital, the management of environmental issues from the hospital industry and how to deal with the government inspection on environmental compliance. Therefore, in order to tackle this topic in the most appropriate way, I have divided this paper in four sections. First section deals with the hospital industry and outlines what must be done for the hospitals to be compliance with the environmental laws. The second section seeks develop the environmental control methods, procedures, and programs to handle environmental hazards presented by hospital industry and also discuss the issues associated with working with governmental officials and how these issues have to be addressed. The third section aims to discuss some of the challenges associated with ensuring that hospital personnel and management can follow the environmental regulations. The fourth section will outline some of the possible ethical and professional dilemmas of a responsible environmental professional and then conclude by bringing all the threads together. SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS WITHIN THE HOSPITAL SETTING Research shows that issues of health and safety are causing a major problem within the hospitals. Such environmental factors are seen as one of the contributing factors to hospital accidents, falls, injuries, hospital infection amongst others. Peled (2005) laments that the increase in work related injuries within the hospital settings are having negative impact on the professionals using the health related services. This is why the International Environmental Law requires that every medical setting must put measures in place for proper waste disposal which include recycling and re use of certain types of materials (Sinha & Cherry, 1996). By and large, different country in the world, do have their environmental laws that governs and regulates the provision of healthcare services within the hospital setting and community work. In the UK for example, all hospitals must adhere to Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which regulates and makes sure that environmental laws are observed in all work situation and also the Management of Health and Safety at Work regulations 1999 ( HSE, 2007). This major piece of legislations stipulates that both the employers and employees do have a responsibility to ensure safety at times. And same goes to health care professions in any given a health care service. The environmental laws regulating the safety operations of UK hospital settings are enforced by the Health and Safety Executive. This is the government body that regulates the manner in which clinical waste from the hospitals are classified and disposed as away of controlling the risk of infections. Under the Hazardous Waste Regulations (2005) of Health and Safety Act, reiterates that all waste producers are required to segregate between hazardous and non-hazardous waste products which can be done through classification and identification, packaging, marking, labeling and documentation (HSE, 2010). In the US, there is no single piece of legislation that regulates the delivery and healthcare practice. Every state has its own laws and health and safety regulations. There seems to be a consensus that no matter where one is situated in the world be it in the UK, USA or Australia, the legal framework for environmental health and safety in hospital are the same. Therefore, what needs to be done to be in compliance with environmental laws any given hospital setting has been outlined by Sadlier (2010) follows: Firstly, that every hospital must have a proper procedure to collecting and disposing clinical wastes as away of controlling infections and contaminations. Secondly, that every hospital must come up with community health education program to education masses concerning the “wider Public Health issues including injury and illness prevention, health surveillance and disease notification, and disaster management,” (Sadlier, 2010). Thirdly, that on personal level all the staff members must be trained and educated on how to promotes safe working environments and prevent causing injury to themselves, fellow work colleagues or clients. Fourthly, that the hospital administration must come up with viable plans that ensure the provision of quality assurance activities which the end result maximize patient protection against adverse outcomes. MEASURES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL, PROCEDURES AND PROGRAMS WITH THE HOSPITAL. Since hospitals are public places and therefore their administration and management can be quite complex when it comes to the provision of health care services. This is why it is important to ensure that health and safety procedures are put in place which includes environmental control, procedures and programs within the hospital settings. Peled (2005) suggests that three ways in which hospital accidents can be reduced and environmental measures are properly managed. These measures are involves ergonomic assessments, safety education and prevention strategies. The first step is what he calls ergonomic assessment: Ergonomics assessment is a method of analyzing and maximizing the potential risks for humans in any health related environments. Peled (2005) sees the application of the ergonomics assessment within the hospital as one of the best ways of management the environmental issues within any given hospital setting. This method takes into consideration the capability and limitations of hospital staff and clients and make sure that they are fully informed on environmental management. This way they are able to carry on with their daily tasks and use the equipments in safer environments. The second step has to do with safety education. Peled (2005) argue that hospital workers must under go some training on health and safety issues. The hospital management can invite the government authorities to come and train their works on the health and safety legislations, measures for environmental controls and procedures for ensuring that the environmental issues within the hospital are addressed. In the hospital management team must device prevention strategies that will enforce environmental laws within the hospitals and ensure that health and safety measures are put in place. In addition, Peled (2005) maintain that the hospital management must device prevention strategy to enforce environmental management project within the hospital setting to ensure that health and safety regulations are observed. But Pope et al (2005) express a different thought by arguing that although the management of hospital environments paramount for all health care workers, very control program must begin with nursing team. This is because nurses are always on the frontline in caring for patients and dealing with visitors, and that’s why they must be incorporated into any environmental health strategy. They emphasize that all measures put in place for managing the hospital environment project must be addressed from the perspectives of the nursing team. Pope et.al (2005) also continue maintain that due to the magnitude of environmental hazards in any given hospital setting all the relationship between the nursing practice, health care and environment must corporately be addressed together. Therefore all the three factors must be addressed together to provide holistic overview on the management of hospital environmental project. This management involves the following measures: Firstly, that during the process of their practice and work every nurse must address and observe the environmental health issues and other arising factors which affects them. At the same, all nurses must take control stance on environmental health issues such as infection control. The second measure is that that all nurses must go through some form of environmental health education, which must be incorporated in their training curriculum as part of their preparation for nursing profession. This will make them be aware that observing the environmental health is part and parcel of their professional career in the provision and delivery of healthcare. Then the third factor is about research whereby all nursing professionals will be required to expand their knowledge by carrying further research details on factors to do with environmental health hazards. However, regardless of these measures for control mechanism has been in place in every hospital following every environmental regulation can pose a challenge for hospital workers to incorporate into their work. Some of the challenges can be due to malpractices whereby health care workers become so used to routine that they don’t follow the procedures and guidelines to best working practices. ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS WITHIN THE HOSPITAL SETTINGS Since all health and medical professionals are entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that people’s lives are well and safe, abusing this trust can be disaster. This is why all the hospital workers have to abide by the medical code of conducts and ethical guidelines to ensure that they follow the right procedures in their working practice. Lyons (2002) outlines and examines in some details various ethical and professional dilemmas facing hospital workers and especially those are responsible for the provision of care. In particular, there are four main dilemmas that has been outlined and addressed by Lyons (2002) in relation to hospital setting. Firstly, there is the issue of trustworthiness, which is concerned with ensuring that all the health care workers are to honest and reliable enough to while undertaking their duties and follow all the health and safety guidelines and procedures put in place to maintain environmental law within the hospitals. Lack of honesty develops into mal practice, which in the end results into death or accidents. It is always difficult to detect dishonesty until a whistle blower blows up every thing. Secondly; how should the health professional develop that sense of responsibility especially to their clients and fellow colleagues at work. Although all the hospital workers are trained personnel and are expected to follow their professional code conduct; in most cases being irresponsible can easily develop into mal-practice. By so doing their standard of work and competence end up dropping down to the low status and cause problems at work. This is where issues of hospital infections come in, when the health professionals fails to observe the guidelines for infection controls. The third ethical dilemmas concerns the issue of respect, which often poses a challenge of tolerating other people who are different from us. There have issues of racial discrimination in hospital settings due to the differences in terms of cultural, ethnic and religious background either on the side of the staff or patients. Various countries have outlined measures for dealing with discrimination issues in work, which every worker needs to observe. And the fourth ethical problem associated with working in hospital is the issue of care. Ensuring that healthcare services are provided within the caring is difficult to determine. That is why there have been cases of patient abuse within the hospitals especially amongst the vulnerable groups in our society like children, the elderly or people with disabilities. These groups are often subjected to neglect, falls or exposed to harm. In addition, all the health professionals are obliged to take due care and not cause harm to their fellow workers. CONCLUSION In this paper, I have attempted to come up with measures of ensuring that health and safety are observed within any given hospital setting. The management of the hospital environment is paramount in the provision of healthcare services. This is why in every country, health and safety has been put in place to as away of managing the environmental law and practice. Such legislations provide a legal framework and guidelines that enforces the provision of health and safety measures in work. Environmental laws regulations that regulates healthcare setting in any given country is aimed at protecting human lives against any harm due to malpractice, abuse of machines and procedures and maximize all forms of environmental hazards. The hospital can manage the environmental project by introducing measure for control system which includes procedures and programs to ensure health and safety of staff and patients. Such measure should involve the assessment of potentials risks and hazard to the environment, the health and safety training for all health professionals both medical and non medical. Also the management team must come up with prevention strategies against contamination and infection control. The implementation of these measures will go without challenges to all the healthcare personnel. This also involves ethical ands professional dilemmas which are associated with how are responsibility, trust, respect and the levels of care. Therefore, it is by observing the ethical and professional codes of conduct will make sure that health and safety regulations will be followed. Failure to do this, then the hospital must come up with disciplinary measures against staff violate these environmental laws. Works Cited Health and Safety Executive. Management of Health care Waste. 2006. Retrieved from at 18th October, 2010 Lyon, C.E. Doing the Right thing: Ethics for Environmental Professionals. 2002. Retrieved from at 18th October, 2010 Peled, K. Work place safety assessment and injury prevention in hospital settings. In Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation. Vol 25. No. 3. 2005. Pope, A.M, Snyder, M.A & Mood, L.H (Eds). Nursing Health and Environment. Institute of Medicine. 2005 Retrieved from at 18th October, 2010 Sadleir, B. Environmental and occupational Health Issues in Hospitals. 2010. Retrieved from at 18th October, 2010 Sinha, P.C and Cherry, K. E. International Encyclopedia of Environmental Laws. 1996 New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1996. Print. Read More