Hospital occupational health and safety services and accidents in Greek hospitals: A case study in a Greek health region

Abstract

Occupational Health and Safety Services (OHSS) in hospitals are based on formal actions to prevent and reduce occupational accidents to ensure a safe working environment. The aim of this study is to examine the correlation between OHSS actions and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) results, and particularly the reduction of accidents in hospitals in a health region in Greece. We developed and used questionnaires to gather survey data. The data was correlated with the help of data analysis methods (descriptive statistics, correlation indicators, regression analysis) to calculate statistical measures and produce groupings of results. We declare that respondents have provided consent for the research to be conducted. Formal actions were associated with the outcome for OHS (0.8096, <0.0001). Of the formal actions in hospitals of the 1st health region, Safety Technicians (ST) showed an inversely high negative correlation with the accident rate (0.566, <0.02), while OHSS showed a moderately negative correlation with the accident rate (-0.387, <0.02). Occupational Physician (OP) services at an early stage because some hospitals do not use ST or Occupational Physician (OP) services, do not have Risk Assessments (RA) or Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS), or do not collect data through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The present case study showed that formal actions are associated with OHS outcomes and accident reduction, where recorded. In many hospitals, formal actions are not ensured results or accidents are recorded. Further research on this issue is needed in the future.