Abstract
To combat the escalating cost of work injuries in California, Senate Bill 198 became law in 1991 and requires all businesses to establish Injury and Illness Prevention Programs (IIPPs). It becomes imperative for hospitals to have effective IIPP more so since hospitals are on CAL/OSHA's 100 most hazardous industries. This researcher has compiled 12 "model" IIPP standards which satisfies the law requirements. A questionnaire survey based on these 12 standards was done on 116 hospitals in Los Angeles County with bed sizes of 100 or greater. Case studies of 6 hospitals in the study population was done to cross-validate the findings from the survey. The survey data were then compared with the results of the case studies. This study found that all the hospitals in the survey (100%) had IIPPs. Over 85% of the hospitals were not only aware of the 12 standards but had them as part of their program. The program administrator of the IIPPs came from various professional groups. 88.9% of the hospitals believed their program administrators had adequate authority to run their programs effectively. 43% of the hospitals did not have formal recognition programs for their employees with good health and safety records. Lack of cooperation from workers, lack of interest by supervisors, time constraints and too many regulations were recurrent problems in running the safety programs. Hospitals in the survey appear to be doing a fairly good job in injury and illness prevention. Injury and illness prevention is too important and should be given the attention it deserves. For more effectiveness, the following were recommended: that hospitals with bed sizes of over 200 should have full-time safety directors with expertise in loss control and injury prevention; that all hospitals institute an incentive program to reward employees with good safety records; that smaller hospitals seek help from reputable private health and safety experts in formulating a good program; that hospitals maintain a "pipe line" to Sacramento to keep abreast of new health and safety regulations.