Authors (including presenting author) :
POON MWY(1), CHENG RTS(1), CHAN KCA(3), LI LYD(3), CHAN FWK(2)
Affiliation :
(1)OSH Committee, Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital (2)HCE Office, Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital (3)KCC OSH Team
Introduction :
Prevention of work injuries is always a challenge to health care setting. While providing quality healthcare to Public, staff experience wide range of occupational safety hazards. Hence, Hospital makes every endeavour to provide safe workplace and protect staff from work injuries by delivering safety training and measures. Yet, Injury-on-duty(IOD) rate of HKBH in 2023 reported as the highest amongst KCC hospitals.
Objectives :
To reduce IOD Rate and make Occupational Safety and Health(OSH) management practices sustainable at workplace
Methodology :
In 2024, HKBH employed Donabedian model as framework to review OSH structure and process, hence implement initiatives for optimising work safety outcomes. These included: 1. Management leadership and governance of OSH Committee structure. OSH Committee Structure was revamped with all concerned stakeholders included. Close communication channel with BMW hospital was developed to strengthen joint effort to address OSH risks. 2. Injury-on-duty monitoring & management. Weekly review on IOD case and timely investigation reporting at Weekly Hospital Operation Meeting. Work process was critically reviewed and remedial measures were made 3. Engaging frontline staff for OSH participation. Bottom up of OSH ideas from frontline staff was encouraged. OSH Focus Groups that involved frontline staff were organised to collect their views, concerns, and feedbacks on daily practice. Also, OSH ambassadors were recruited and appointed by HCE, targeted to collect their wisdoms, and enhance peer influence at Department level. 4. All-round communication on OSH with all stakeholders through various platforms e.g regular staff forum, Hospital Consultative Committee, Q&S alert, email alert etc. 5.OSH Promotion, Education and Training. Regular safety training, OSH Fun day and drills for emergency preparedness were conducted all-year round. 6.Risk Identification and Management via regular assessment, Q&S round and Environmental Safety Inspection Round.
Result & Outcome :
Promising results with dramatic reduction in IOD rate as well as IOD sick leave in 2024 shown. There was a great reduction of IOD cases in 2024 compared with 2023 (11 cases in 2024 vs 42 cases in 2023), which account for nearly 74% reduction. IOD rate has greatly reduced from 7.27 in 2023 to 1.83 in 2024. Additionally, marked reduction in total number of IOD sick leave incurred in 2024 (42 days in 2024 vs 793.5 days in 2023) implied that IOD-related productivity loss had been greatly reduced.
