Florida may require hospitals to conduct anonymous patient safety surveys Florida lawmakers are considering legislation that would require hospitals to conduct anonymous employee surveys on patient safety culture, reports the Tampa Bay Times.
Every other year, hospitals would have to survey employees on how well their teams work together and communicate, along with whether staff members feel comfortable raising safety concerns with superiors. Survey results would then be shared with the public.
The Florida House of Representatives has previously passed similar proposals, which failed to gain traction in the Senate. However, this week the Senate Health Policy Committee passed the bill in a unanimous vote.
Rep. Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, credits the bill’s heightened support to recent patient safety issues that have come to light at hospitals like St. Petersburg-based Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. In November 2018, the Tampa Bay Times published an investigative report on safety and quality issues at the hospital’s heart surgery unit.
“If we were asking clinical staff on a regular basis, ‘How do you feel about the quality of care at this hospital?’ and it’s going to be public, God knows the CEO of that hospital is going to make sure they put eyeballs on that data and that could save somebody’s life,” Mr. Sprowls told Tampa Bay Times.
Proposed bill would increase interstate speed limit
There is a financial cost too. NHTSA estimates that the economic cost of speed-related crashes is more than $52 billion each year. There is data that clearly highlights the negative impact of raising the speed limit. A recent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study examined longer-term changes in 41 states. During 1993-2013, a 5 mph increase in the maximum state speed limit was associated with an 8 percent increase in fatality rates on interstates and freeways.
Motorists often drive faster than the speed limit. The AAA Foundation’s Traffic Safety Culture Index found that a large proportion of drivers confess to exceeding posted speed limits with nearly half of drivers (45.6%) saying they have driven 15 mph over the speed limit on a freeway in the past month.
For these reasons, AAA will oppose these legislative proposals. Illinois’ highly congested roads and poor infrastructure coupled with higher speeds will only lead to more crashes and greater danger to the motoring public.
Safe truckies to be rewarded by new Victorian program
“FOR every incident involving a truck, there are dozens of examples of professional heavy vehicle drivers that live and breath safety every second they are behind the wheel and on the job.”
Those are the drivers that a new program for the transport industry that aims to unearth so the safety culture that operators enshrine within their organisations everyday can be promoted and celebrated.
That’s the view of Victorian Transport Association chief executive officer Peter Anderson, who has put his support the VTA Driver Salute program.
The program, launched by Victorian Minister for Roads, Road Safety and the TAC Jaala Pulford, acknowledges and rewards heavy vehicle operators and drivers that demonstrate best-practice safety in the course of their duties.
It is sponsored by leading truck tyre manufacturer and retailer Goodyear and Dunlop Tyres, and is powered by DriveRisk, a driver behaviour management company that uses video technology to help operators and drivers change behaviour and identify risk.
Texas Mutual Insurance grant affords AC to expand safety culture
AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) — Amarillo College’s Risk Management Program received a $100,000 check (safety grant) on Tuesday from Texas Mutual Insurance. AC provides safety training for those who work in construction, manufacturing and transportation industries to help reduce work related accidents or injuries.
“Because of the cost which can be an obstacle for small companies to be able to provide this kind of safety, there are opportunities to allow employers to get this safety training for free,” said Jeff Wallick, Environmental Safety Director at Amarillo College. “It’s a big deal and it helps the businesses save money and keeps people safe at work.”
AC is one of ten colleges across the state of Texas to receive this grant this year.
This is the fourth grant AC has received from Texas Mutual for safety training. Since 1999, Texas Mutual has awarded $8.8 million in safety grants to various colleges.
How to: Creating a safety culture
The landscaping field harbors a number of work hazards, and simply saying you’re committed to safety isn’t enough to keep your crews safe day in and day out. You have to walk the walk and have a true safety culture to protect your employees.
“A safety culture is extremely important because our primary responsibility is for every employee to arrive home safely every day,” says Fred Peratt, owner of Environmental Enhancements, based in Sterling, Virginia. “Safety promotes professionalism to our clients, suppliers, subcontractors and employees, which shows we care as an organization.”
Creating a strong safety culture allows you to take the practices covered in your safety program and turn them into a way of life for your employees.
Some of the benefits of having a safety culture include lower insurance premiums, less downtime thanks to fewer injuries, reduced equipment damage, minimized vehicle accidents and pride of ownership with all employees.
Food safety culture in Brazilian restaurants
Food safety culture may establish the right environment for adequate food handling and management, reducing violations of food safety regulation, especially those related to foodborne disease outbreaks.
This study aimed to evaluate differences among elements of food safety culture in food services at low or high-risk for foodborne diseases. This study was conducted with 63 managers and 333 food handlers from 32 food services located in the metropolitan region of Campinas, State of São Paulo, Brazil. The following elements of food safety culture (considering the technical-managerial and human routes) were evaluated: management systems, style, and process; leadership; organizational commitment; food safety climate (communication; self-commitment; management and coworker support; environment support; risk judgment; normative beliefs and work pressure); and risk perceptions. In the technical-managerial route, restaurants were categorized as low- or high foodborne disease risk restaurants.
For the evaluation of food safety management systems, a validated checklist was used. In the human route, food safety climate analysis was performed by evaluating five elements applied exclusively to food handlers. High-risk restaurants presented a higher percentage of violation in most aspects related to food safety regulation and physical structure. Leadership and knowledge of low-risk restaurants’ managers presented a higher level when compared to high-risk restaurants’ managers, showing that in the first group managers acted as mediators of safe practices. Food handlers from low-risk restaurants presented higher scores in food safety knowledge, organizational commitment, and food safety climate when compared to food handlers from high-risk restaurants. In restaurants with lower risk for foodborne diseases, the elements of food safety culture were better evaluated, indicating fewer violations of food safety regulation. In these restaurants, a consistent food safety climate was perceived within the technical-managerial route.
Western Food Safety Summit registration available
Tim York, president of Salinas, Calif.-based Markon Cooperative, is the keynote speaker for the opening day of the Western Food Safety Summit.
The theme for the May 6-7 event at Hartnell College is “Creating a Sustainable Food Safety Culture,” according to a news release.
York, a founding member of the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops, kicks off the two-day event. Dennis Donohue, director of the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology, will be the keynote speaker on May 7, according to the release.
Twelve other speakers, who will address food safety issues ranging from Food and Drug Administration programs to water sampling and treating procedures, are scheduled for the event.
“This year’s summit program is extremely strategic, and that’s because this is an increasingly critical moment for food safety in the fresh fruits and vegetables industry,” Western Food Safety Summit Chairman Jess Hogg, quality assurance manager for Scheid Vineyards, said in the release.
Florida mistakenly man pumps $60 of gas on deck of his boat
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Mistakenly inserting a fuel nozzle into a fishing pole slot, a Florida man pumped $60 worth of gasoline onto the deck of his boat and the ground of a gas station, fire rescue officials said.
The incident happened Monday in the Orlando area, Orange County Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles said on Twitter.
The gas flowed from the fishing pole hole and onto the deck of the 24-foot (7.3 meters) boat. The 31-year-old man realized his mistake and quit pumping.
As he tried to clean up the mess, the gasoline began leaking from the boat onto the ground at the 7-Eleven store. He told personnel and then called the fire department’s non-emergency number, Jachles said.
A technical rescue team siphoned the gas from the boat and cleaned up. The situation was described as a “level 3 hazmat,” meaning the potential of hazard was high, Jachles said.
[Updates: Hazmat unit at University of Bristol halls as student rushed to hospital amid coronavirus global emergency] [www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bris…)
A University of Bristol student has been rushed to hospital with “flu-like symptoms” amid a global coronavirus emergency.
Footage taken today (January 30) shows a hazmat unit at the Wills Hall of residence in Stoke Bishop.
A letter from the university to students reads: “Earlier this evening, one of the residents in Wills Hall reported feeling unwell with flu-like symptoms.
“As a precautionary measure, the student has been taken to hospital.
“We are working closely with Public Health England (PHE) and will continue to monitor the situation and support this student.
ABS Awarded $2.1 Mln for Safety Research
ABS announced on Wednesday it has been awarded more than $2.1 million for two projects focused on strengthening safety culture in the offshore oil and gas industry.
The money from the Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is part of $7.25 million awarded to eight projects aimed at advancing safety offshore.
“As part of our mission to promote the security of life and property and preserve the natural environment, we are continuously working to push the frontiers of safety and so we are delighted that GRP has chosen to support these exciting projects,” said Matt Tremblay, ABS Senior Vice President for Global Offshore.
A project to develop an integrated offshore energy industry safety culture evaluation, benchmarking and improvement toolbox led by Dr. Kevin McSweeney, ABS Manager of Advanced Technology & Research, in cooperation with Lamar University and the University of Houston, received $1,440,330.
A second project providing recommendations for data science technologies to aggregate essential exposure data and enable analysis of safety incident rates around the world led by Dr. Xiaozhi (Christina) Wang, ABS Vice President of Digital Solutions, in cooperation with Safetec, received $739,992.
The GRP’s competitive Safer Offshore Energy Systems Grants program supports projects that produce datasets, strategies and tools for measurement that will promote a culture of safety in the oil and gas industry.
“A culture of safety has nine characteristics,” said Kelly Oskvig, senior program officer for the Gulf Research Program’s SOES initiatives. “Through this grants competition, we hope to provide the tools to help strengthen some of those characteristics as well as answering a few critical questions - what best practices can oil and gas adapt from other high-risk industries? How can an organization measure improvements of its safety culture? How can data be used to better understand the dangers?”
“Cab-facing cameras allow fleets to understand if the driver acted or reacted appropriately, if they were distracted, sleeping, etc. Having both cameras helps fleets identify, coach and correct unsafe driving habits on a proactive basis. By pinpointing a driver’s areas of improvement, fleets can proactively coach and correct before an incident occurs. On a similar note, it allows fleets to recognize and reward safe driving habits to encourage a stronger safety culture,” he said.
It’s also important to make sure that video telematics solutions aren’t solely used to keep track of negative events.
“Video telematics should drive positive change and a culture of reward and recognition,” said Kevin Aries, head of global product success at Verizon Connect. “It’s not always about policing the bad stuff, but rewarding the good.” … Of course, every fleet is different, and some may decide that they don’t want or need the cab-facing camera, which is why each of these video telematics solutions makes the inclusion of driver-facing video optional. “As the driver shortage continues,” he went on, “fleets are understanding that a strong safety culture is paramount to not only attracting but retaining top-performing drivers. Prioritizing safety shows the company’s commitment to its culture, underlining how much the company values its drivers and ensuring they return home safely.”
Mariners need more safety management training, experts say
Another hurdle some companies’ safety management teams face is a negative safety culture, which can have a major influence on human factors such as behavior and performance, incidents and injuries.
Kenya Nixon, regional director of loss control and safety for Cooper Consolidated, said among the expressions she most dislikes hearing is “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” She said the words “safety first” are used a lot but, “let’s be honest, it’s not always first.”
Implementing culture changes breaks down this way, according to Nixon — about 20% want to change, 60% are on the fence, and 20% don’t ever want to change. Individual companies have to want to change. “It’s about communication,” she said. “Don’t just tell them what to do, tell them why.”
Preventing Skin Exposure to Pesticides Among Apple Growers and Factors Influencing Use of Protective Clothing The data show, however, that apple growers also rely on trade know-how in developing and implementing prevention practices that become an integral part of their activities and that they present as complementing their use of PC. These findings suggest that practices that do not comply with recommendations may be seen as adaptations to common microexposure situations, to a lack of information about PC or to rules unsuited to the realities of growers’ work and needs. The prevention practices reveal the growers’ concern about the risks associated with their work.
Thanks to a combined sociological and ergonomic approach, this project produced findings and recommendations firmly rooted in the realities faced by growers. Getting farm workers involved in developing, testing and validating safety rules through trade collectives could yield outcomes that result in better protection against pesticide exposure. If the agricultural community and public health stakeholders join forces, it should be possible to design measures grounded in the realities of growers’ work and social dynamics.
Good start for Europe’s one-stop shop
As part of ERA’s digital agenda, the agency is preparing a digital road map for data interoperability. “Having removed the physical barriers to interoperability, we should avoid the pitfall of building new digital silos as more digital technologies are introduced,” Doppelbauer explains.
“Safety culture, which I should have mentioned first, along with human and organisational factors, completes our list of priorities for 2020.” ERA now has about 150 signatories to its European Safety Culture declaration, but to accelerate the process it has adopted a new approach to get people to sign up. In October, the Dutch NSA invited all railway operators in the Netherlands to a meeting. “We got 24 signatures in one go to sign the declaration through peer pressure,” Doppelbauer says.
“It is really important to create a European safety culture. Human factors have played a role in virtually every significant railway accident. ATO will help to limit the impact of human factors, as will a better man-machine interface to avoid misinterpretation of safety rules.
Ep.10 What helps and hinders stopping work for safety? EPISODE SUMMARY On today’s episode, we discuss which factors support workers stopping their work for safety reasons and which factors hinder workers from stopping.
EPISODE NOTES The paper we use to frame today’s discussion is We Can Stop Work, but Then Nothing Gets Done.
Topics:
Why do workers not stop when risk is obvious? The purpose of focus groups as a data collection method. The pitfalls of the focus group method. Turning focus groups transcripts into research findings. How supervisors can support workers in making good decisions. Why it’s hard for workers to turn down unsafe work.
Utkal Alumina Observes National Road Safety Week
Bhubaneswar : Utkal Alumina International Limited (UAIL) organized the 31st National Road Safety Week from 11th January to 17th January 2020. The program was targeted at improving road safety awareness amongst all stake holders in the unit. It extended beyond the works boundary engaging the peripheral area as well as the local administration. On day one, Mr.MazharBeig, Joint President, UAIL inaugurated the program by flagging off the Road Safety Rally and Cart.The Road Safety Cart was deployed to create awareness in nearby villages.This year the theme of the Road Safety Week was– “Bringing Changes through Youth Power.”
This seven day long program witnessed different safety promotional activities like Road Safety Awareness Rally by all employees, Road Safety Awareness Talk, Road Safety ‘Sit & Draw’ competition among school children, Road Safety debate competition among school children, Road Safety Awareness Training to employees by RTO/MVI followed by quizetc. were organised.A Safety Task Force was also formed under the direct supervision of Col. Ranbir Singh GM – Security & Administrationto conduct training program, surprise inspections/audits of various vehicles during the month of January, 2020 as per corporate guideline.The winners received their awards during the closing ceremony. The employees who completed safety related training sessions successfully and the life savers who played a vital role in saving lives during industrial incidents were also rewarded during the program. On the occasion of inauguration, Mr.Beig, highlighted, “how the role of company policies and adherence to its norms has worked significantly in prevention of mishapsin the company premises. He stressed upon the awareness programs for employees to promote safety culture in UAIL.” Speaking on the occasion, the Unit Head & President of UAIL, Mr. N. Nagesh, “appreciated the role of the role of all stakeholders in the safety excellence journey of Utkal Alumina which made it possible for many mile stones being achieved as far as safety was concerned. According to him, based on the learning from past experiences, many initiatives had been taken which would definitely enable the company towards its “Ultimate Goal of Zero Accident.”
(NFPA 70E Tip: Informative Annex Q, Part 8 Is your workplace culture safety-centric?) [https://www.ecmweb.com/safety/article/21120692/nfpa-70e-tip-informative-annex-q-part-8]
This eighth and final part of Annex Q is titled, “Work Place Culture”. The word “culture” has been overused and misused in the business literature so much that it has taken on a trivial dimension. But in the electrical safety world, its meaning is anything but trivial. In this context, the workplace culture consists of the prevailing attitudes and core beliefs of the group. When a workplace has a positive safety culture, people tend to think safety first and the peer pressure to enforce that is pervasive. This culture doesn’t just happen. It must be nurtured from top to bottom and from bottom to top.
“Workers, supervisors, and managers must all work together to implement strong human performance practices” [Q.8.1].
Workers take personal responsibility for their actions. They strive to improve themselves, the task at hand, and the work environment [Q.8.2]. The Annex lists five general practices that workers should consistently demonstrate. One of those is “Anticipation of error-likely situations and conditions” [Q.8.2(2)].
Supervisors and managers have several responsibilities in regard to the safety culture. Firstly, they must lead by example. In fact, Q.8.3, which discusses their responsibilities, begins with the words “Through their actions.” One of the jobs of any supervisor or manager is to identify and address problems that workers face; you can think of this as “running interference” or “optimizing the system.” Annex Q incorporates this concept in one of the five general practices it says supervisors and managers should demonstrate:
“Seek out and eliminate broader company weaknesses that may create opportunity for error” [Q.8.3(3)].
The organization itself has responsibilities. A key one is to recognize that people make mistakes. Annex Q lists five responsibilities the organization should demonstrate. One of those is “Promote open communication” [Q.8.4(1)]. This concept is often tossed around carelessly, so much talk but not actually implemented. When a worker can go to his or her supervisor and communicate openly, “I made a mistake,” then the supervisor can address that mistake. But if the worker conceals the mistake out of fear of reprisal for saying anything, guess what happens? Similarly, a worker should be able to openly communicate to his or her supervisor, “I think you made a mistake. Can we talk about it?”
National Academy of Sciences awards grants to advance safety culture in offshore oil and gas
WASHINGTON — The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today announced $7.25 million in grant awards for eight projects focused on strengthening safety culture in the offshore oil and gas industry.
Oil and gas production in deepwater are inherently hazardous activities that can fail in complex, catastrophic ways, as tragically shown by the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico and the 87-day oil spill that ensued 10 years ago. While many factors led to this disaster, several reports issued in the aftermath emphasized the need for an improved safety culture within the offshore oil and gas industry. A robust safety culture has many dimensions, including leadership commitment to safety values and actions, a safe environment for raising concerns or reporting incidents and “near misses,” and organizational policies and practices that encourage employees to make safe decisions.
The GRP’s Safer Offshore Energy Systems (SOES) Grants 4 supports projects that produce datasets, strategies, and tools for measurement that will promote a culture of safety in the oil and gas industry. As the industry will continue to be a vital part of the Gulf Coast economy, this work is urgently needed to ensure protection of people and the environment.
When a bank gets that high level of rapport, it can embody the spirit of ERM—risk culture throughout the organization, with every employee held accountable to managing risk in their own areas. “Whether you’re an executive leader or a teller, what can you do to mitigate risk in your area?” as Piger puts it. “If you’re a branch teller, maybe it’s letting [the]BSA/AML fraud [department]know of a suspicious customer. That might be your biggest avenue of mitigating risk. [It’s] a huge avenue for instilling that risk culture.”
Conclusion: According to the Agency for Health Research and Quality, the overall classification of patient safety score and most of the scores related to dimensions were low. Hours worked per week, participation in a patient safety program, reporting of adverse events and most safety dimensions were found to be factors associated with patient safety culture. Well-designed patient safety interventions need to be integrated with organizational policies to address all dimensions of patient safety culture.
Why Anti-Bullying Policies Should Be Leading Indicators
To have a credible safety culture, management must be responsive to concerns of visible and hidden, verbal and non-verbal abusive conduct.
To earn credibility with employees, management must be responsive to a variety of workplace concerns.
One important worker concern is workplace bullying, or what Tennessee, California, and Utah laws refer to as “abusive conduct.”
The December 2019 issue of EHS Today covered many topics, including leading indicators, workplace violence and safety culture. Each of these is connected to an organization’s anti-bullying policies.
Many organizations do not have such policies. Some have policies but do not communicate or enforce them.
Contributing Editor David Sparkman wrote “OSHA Embraces Leading Indicators” and gave as much detail as anyone could put on a single page in the magazine. As I read about this interesting new strategy, I wondered whether OSHA and employers recognized an anti-bullying policy as a leading indicator.
NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel Releases 2019 Annual Report
The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), an advisory committee that reports to NASA and Congress, issued its 2019 annual report Tuesday examining the agency’s safety performance over the past year and highlighting accomplishments, issues and concerns.
The report highlights 2019 activities and includes assessments of NASA’s:
International Space Station Lunar and deep space exploration Exploration Systems Development Commercial Crew Program Aeronautics and air operations Safety culture Enterprise protection
“The panel noted considerable headway toward NASA’s human exploration objectives in 2019,” said ASAP Chair Patricia Sanders. “We are supportive of the significant amount of testing – both completed and underway – as well as the thoroughness of ongoing work to resolve technical issues. While many challenges remain, the progress to date is encouraging; however, much work lies ahead.”
BRINGING ORDER TO DISORDER SHOULD BE THE OBJECTIVE Setting a course for an organization that aligns with its mission, vision and values brings needed order to what would otherwise be described as disorder. Leadership plots the organization’s journey through defined processes that establish goals for the present and the future. The success of an organization depends on the leadership team consistently working with the crews to meet the defined goals utilizing defined metrics. Patient and employee safety culture is a key component.
EMS has made significant strides in organizational leadership; but not all leaders have defined and aligned plans to support their efforts. Those who have established goals which are supported by measurement, allow leaders and their teams to succeed both from a business and safety culture standpoint.
With some interesting new tidbits, the board’s conclusions on the cause of the accident matched my predictions — the did not place blame on the many faults in Uber’s software, bad as they were, because the system was designed to expect such faults to exist and had a human safety driver there to supervise and take over when they occurred. Uber did a terrible job of designing their safety culture, and of hiring, training and monitoring their safety drivers, and that night, the driver was watching a video on her phone instead of the road, leaving her to not take control in a situation where she should have easily done so — and a tragic result.
One notable thing in the findings was a focus on “automation complacency” — the situation where humans quickly become bored with automated systems that need only rare attention, and then get bad at paying that attention. Uber didn’t account for that at all. Some teams have a camera monitor the driver’s gaze. Teslas require their drivers to keep tweaking the wheel to show they are there. We can expect regulators to follow the NTSB and start pushing for better countermeasures to complacency during testing and driver-assist.
Show Me the Money: The Business Case for Safety and Wellness in EMS
Step 1 is to put in place a dedicated risk and safety officer. This individual’s job is to ensure the safety, training, wellness and resiliency culture is firmly in place. Their job is as much a coach as it is compliance, daily interaction with the crews, establishing an open and ‘just’ reporting system free from retribution are all critical components of their job.
Step 2 includes building the framework for your safety and wellness culture.
A. All pre-hire employment candidates must take and pass a nationally validated EMS specific physical abilities test. We need to establish a fitness standard as it lays the groundwork for your wellness culture/
B. Pre-hire candidates need to take an EMS specific psychological evaluation to ensure that that can function in your safety culture and have the key resiliency characteristics needed to survive the job.