Status of the Occupational Health and Safety Programs of Several Hospitals in Korea

Lee, Kwan; Lim, Hyun Sul; Kim, Soo keun

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
As health care workers suffer from various hazards in hospital, an occupational safety and health program is very important to them. This study was conducted to investigate the status of the occupational safety and health programs of several hospitals in Korea.
METHODS
We conducted a questionnaire survey on 941 hospitals in Korea. All questionnaires were posted to the department of general affairs at each hospital and responses were received from 108 hospitals (11.5%). Eight responses were excluded because of insufficient data and the remaining 100 questionnaires were analyzed. The collected data were evaluated using the SPSS 10.0 statistical package and the demands for occupational safety and health programs between two groups were analyzed by RIDIT analysis.
RESULTS
The study subjects were 53 general hospitals and 47 hospitals. An occupational safety and health committee, infection control committee, safety manager, health manager, activities for vaccination, reports for needle stick injury and records related to occupational injury were more likely to be present in general hospitals than hospitals (p<0.05). Demands for occupational safety and health were higher in general hospitals than hospitals. Especially, demands for measurement of working environment, improvement of ventilatory system, management of chemical materials and supply of protective equipment were significantly higher in general hospitals than hospitals (p<0.05).
CONCLUSIONS
We concluded from the findings of our study that occupational safety and health programs are not yet sufficient in Korean hospitals. So, we expect that special management, policies and laws for health care workers will be promulgated.