Hazards and Risk in the Workplace

Hazards and Risk in the Workplace Designated substance can be chemical, biological, physical agent or combinations, given as a designated substance where exposure of worker is prohibited, restricted, limited controlled or regulated. Biological Hazards Patients and residents may be carrying germs of which they are unaware. Working in a health care setting or community care, workforce may be exposed to a huge number of biological hazards. Ergonomic Hazards Clients lifting and transferring patients can be very dangerous if the caregiver is not aware of the proper technique and not properly trained and if the lifting devices are not available. Information Risk Guidelines to avoid incidents with regards to information handling are restrict access to patient healthcare information to safeguard integrity of information and diminish the risk of compromising privacy and allow only certified personnel to access patient health information. Healthcare business areas which are high risk is the integration of IT on healthcare systems which are prone to hacks or attacks which includes patient data, equipment and system software issues vulnerabilities on implanted devices Financial risk In Kindly Residential Care Rest Home, the responsibilities for strategic risk management are determined by board of director’s decisions about the goals and direction of the organisation. Board strategic planning and decision-making processes are thorough. Senior leaders of Kindly Residential Care Rest Home are responsible for all aspects of its financial health. They are charged with understandingthe unitsfinancial situation and not allowing unintended deficits to occur. Employment practices In Kindly Residential Care Rest Home, employees and managers are aware and updated in constantly making improved policies, procedures and documentation within the organization. This is important because it will help minimize unwanted risk such as human error. The organisation retains knowledgeable staff and well qualified human resource manager that will recruit and train internal workforce to develop organisation’s competency. One more risk management strategy is the organisation purchased a well-structured and comprehensive employment practices liability insurance policythat helps pay for any settlements or decisions endowed against an employer defense costs.Employment practices liability insurancepolicies not only deliver coverage for accusations of discrimination, but also extend to coverinvasion of privacy ,sexual harassment, wrongful dismissal, constructive dismissal, , breach oforal or writtenemployment contract, employment relatedmisrepresentation, wrongful discipline, , wrongful demotion, defamation, wrongful infliction of emotional distress, wrongful failure to employ or promote wrongful deprivation of a career opportunity and others. Fraud prevention measures The organisation is aligned to commit its preventative strategies to control fraud exposure of the organisation. Customer service, program delivery entity and policy entity are responsible for handling the fraud risk. In Kindly Residential Care Rest Home, code of conduct, fraud awareness training and fraud policy are highly emphasized during employment screening. High level of security clearance for staff and regular supplier reviews are implemented within the organisation. Regular and random audit checks are practiced as well to minimize fraud exposure. The controls recognized and their related costs are considered with respect to the nature and measure of the fraud risks designed to address. Health and safety policy Obligations and responsibilities All the workforce have an obligation to comply with the organisation’s workplace health and safety policies, instructions, procedures and to ensure a safe place of work. This means that workforces are required to take counteractive action to watch against hazards at workplace or report all hazards which cannot be instantly corrected. The board of directors envoys responsibilities for the management team of work health and safety. In implementing the obligations, the organisation conform to the Work Health and Safety Act of New Zealand and as expected the organisation established processes for regular risk assessments and self-audits within workplaces. The Organisation also ensures the workplace health and safety of all staffs under their control by avoiding or minimising their risk exposure. All individuals have a responsibility to guard and protect others against any hazards or events as soon as they are identified. If the incidents or hazards cannot be corrected immediately, the individual must report the hazards to the proper staff for investigation and incident. Protection of physical assets The organisation owns both long and short term assets. Risk management professionals of the organisation are the ones responsible for protecting organisation’s assets. They monitor and consider events that might have an effect on the assets such as floods, fire and natural disaster. Appropriate actions are planned. The organisation allocated reasonable cost for property repair and maintenance. Patients’s data and information that are written on a large volume of papers and in the computer are maintained and secured as well to minimise risk of loss and destruction. CCTV camera are also installed in the organisation for security purposes and to prevent theft allegations among staff in an incident of property loss. The stakeholders in Kindly Residential Care Rest Home established a risk committee to monitor exposure, actions taken and risks that have materialised and Health and Safety Committee implemented policies and procedures to minimize or prevent these injuries. Kindly Residential Care Rest Home is able to work closely with the local District Health Board for disaster management in case of these emergencies and plans for these events have been put into place Impact of crisis assessment includes Key Personnel required for such activity facilities used computer processes or Programs required External Providers Affected Stakeholders/ Reputation In threat assessment, to counteract the threat, the most cost-effective solution must be identified and implemented. The design of the solution is based on the findings of threat assessment and Recovery should start after the immediate threat to the enterprise has been removed. Recovery solution design After an incident, it is very essential that thorough examines are carried out to apprehend lessons learned, issues recognised, recommendations to be executed, and planning assumptions to be revised. Implementation and communication In an actual emergency, the duty manager or the chief warden will take charge of the whole plan and what plan to implement The plan can be activated through three consecutive steps which are Standby, Implementation and Stand Down. To keep up the ever changing environment, Kindly Residential Care Rest Home has an annual maintenance and updating of the Business Continuity Plan