UTILIZING DATA SYSTEMS TO DEVELOP AND MONITOR OCCUPATIONAL-HEALTH PROGRAMS IN A LARGE CANADIAN HOSPITAL

With rapid change in health care requiring greater emphasis on product ivity and quality management, occupational health hazards in hospitals have been receiving increasing recognition, now not only focusing on controlling infection, but also on chemical, physical, mechanical as w ell as psychosocial hazards. Reducing costly time loss from musculoske letal injuries is a particular imperative. The Department of Occupatio nal and Environmental Medicine at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre, d eveloped databases to help priorize, monitor and improve occupational health programs for its 6,000 employees. Risk assessment/risk manageme nt models were adopted to identify hazards, quantify risks and prioriz e intervention. Using the databases permitted-the targeting of groups requiring immunization, resulting in increased coverage. New safety pr oducts were introduced and found to be cost-beneficial. A return-to-wo rk post-injury program was particularly cost-beneficial. Over the five years following the implementation of occupational health programs, w orkers' compensation assessment reductions resulted in savings of more than half-a-million dollars annually. The databases were invaluable i n affecting these changes.