Angela Presson, MD, MPH, Office of Occupational Medicine, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Dept of Labor, N3457, 200 Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC 20210, 202-693-2323, presson.angela@dol.gov

The home care environment has been an area of increasing concern in occupational health because of changing health care patterns involving shorter hospital stays and provision of more services in the home. These efforts have shifted the workplace of many employees to the patient or client household - an environment unfamiliar to the worker at best to irrefutably dangerous. We will discuss findings from recent OSHA inspections of home care operations and outline the most commonly found potentially hazardous situations, including strategies for the employer and the worker to eliminate or decrease risk from duties performed in this environment.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this presentation/discussion, the participant will be able to

(
• list the 3 occupational health and safety violations most commonly found by OSHA field staff in the home care environment; (
• describe at least one strategy for eliminating or decreasing these hazards to workers; and (
• outline resources for home care safety and health available at OSHA and elsewhere, and the method(s) for accessing this guidance.

Keywords: Home Care, Health Care Workers

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.