Hospitalization, hazards

Hazard surveillance (gray) Equipment that scores between and including 6 and 11 points on the criteria s evaluation system is visually inspected on an annual basis during the hospital hazard surveillance rounds. 

Landro, L., For Patients, a List of Hospital Hazards, The Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition), December 25,2008, p. D.2... 

In the past, hazardous wastes were often grouped into the following categories (1) radioactive substances, (2) chemicals, (3) biological wastes, (4) flammable wastes, and (5) explosives. The chemical cate-goiy included wastes that were corrosive, reactive, and toxic. The principal sources of hazardous biological wastes are hospitals and biological-research facilities. 

Provisions for primary and emergeney eommunieations (internal, e.g. with staff, emergeney personnel, and external, e.g. with die press, emergeney serviees, hospital, employees relatives, telephone links and radios) require eareful assessment. If diere is a flammable hazard on site, radios may need to be intrinsieally safe or flameproof. 

Medical surveillance programs range from support contracts with local hospitals or physicians to full-scale on-site occupational health organizations that include physicians, nurses, and technicians who are employed by prime contractors. The option selected depends on the size of the project, the nature of the hazards involved, the capabilities of local facilities, and the resources available. 

It should be noted that the primary purpose of the ventilation systems described for abrasive blasting rooms and hospital isolation rooms is to prevent or minimize exposure to hazardous substances in those persons working outside the blasting or isolation room. The ventilation system may also reduce exposure for workers inside these rooms, but often the reduction is not sufficient to eliminate the need for respiratory protection. 

Accidents have occurred because hot water was not treated with respect. Five men were killed when a plastic hot-water tank split along a seam [14J. On another plant, a man, about to make some tea, caught his sleeve on the tap of an electric water heater. The heater fell over, 2 gal of hot water fell on him, and he died in the hospital five days later [15]. The heater should have been fixed to the wall. If it had contained a hazardous chemical, it would have been secured, but no one thought hot water was hazardous. Chemicals are not the only hazards on a plant. 

Idcntificalion of facilities at which an c.xlremcly hazardous substance is present in an amount in e. ccss of the threshold plamiing quantity, whether it is being produced, used, or stored. Transportalion routes of any extremely haztirdous substance lo or from the facility must be given, as well. Also lo be identified were other facilities contributing or subjected lo addilioiuil liazards because of tlieir proximity to facilities such as hospitals or natural gas facilities... 

Stutz DR, Janusz SJ, eds. 1988. Hazardous materials injuries. A handbook for pre-hospital care. 2nd ed. Beltsville, MD Bradford Communications Corporation, 149, 372-374. 

Crucial factors affecting overall cost are the responsiveness to medication (for example, less than 70% of patients are lithium responders ), adherence to recommended treatment, and adverse events resulting from medication. A particular hazard of lithium treatment is the risk of rapid re-emergence of mania, which occurs in up to 50% of patients if the dmg is abruptly discontinued (see Cookson, 1997). Disappointingly, it has not been found that the introduction of widespread treatment with lithium has been associated with a reduction in the number of patients admitted and discharged from hospital with a diagnosis of mania. In order to achieve the best result with the available... 

Tuberculosis is on the increase in developed countries such as the USA and UK furthermore, MAI may be associated with AIDS sufferers. Hospital-acquired opportunistic mycobacteria may cause disseminated infection and also lung infections, endocarditis and pericarditis. Transmission of mycobacterial infection by endoscopy is rare, despite a marked increase in the use of flexible fibreoptic endoscopes, but bronchoscopy is probably the greatest hazard for the transmission ofM tuberculosis and other mycobacteria. Thus, biocides used for bronchoscope disinfection must be ehosen carefully to ensure that such transmission does not occur. 

Mercury oxide and silver oxide button batteries are sometimes collected by jewelers, pharmacies, hospitals, and electronic or hearing aid stores for shipping them to companies that reclaim mercury or silver. Some batteries cannot be recycled. If recycling is not possible, batteries should be saved for disposing of at a hazardous waste collection. Battery recycling and button battery collection may be good options at present, but may change as the mercury concentration in the majority of button batteries continues to decrease. 

---