Industry growth and the changing landscape of infectious diseases is driving a significant transformation of healthcare, while creating new challenges to overcome. The second annual Healthcare Workplace Safety Trend Report provides healthcare providers’ and administrators’ perspectives on those challenges to help healthcare organizations improve safety standards as well as create a quality care environment for providers and their patients.
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Based on in-depth 2022 survey data and analysis of U.S. healthcare providers and administrators, the Healthcare Workplace Safety Trend Report reveals crucial insights on healthcare workers’ perspectives on health and safety working environments.
Healthcare Professionals Remain Stressed and Burnt-out
While stress levels decreased from 2021, they remain high with nearly three in five providers (58%) still noting their day-to-day stress level has worsened in the past year, citing increasing workloads, longer hours and decreasing staff as the largest stress contributors. More than a quarter feel unmotivated (34%), have trouble concentrating (28%), and are concerned about their physical safety (25%).
Effective Healthcare Environments Require Medical Waste Management
Both providers (93%) and administrators (84%) agree that medical waste management is important to delivering the best possible care to patients. The majority of providers (94%) also stated that improper regulated medical/biohazardous waste disposal puts the physical safety of healthcare workers at risk, an increase of 12% from 2021.
At-Home Care Creates Waste Challenges
Providers (69%) and administrators (78%) agree that there are not enough standards in place to safely remove medical waste from at-home care. Nearly six in ten providers say patients do not know how to dispose of medical waste safely (59%, up from 26% in 2021), nor do they have adequate tools and resources available (58%, up from 37% in 2021) in at-home care settings. Almost all providers (91%) agree that they need additional training to uphold safe working conditions in at-home care settings.
Medical Waste Critically Impacts Communities
Ninety-five percent of healthcare providers and administrators agree that improper medical and biohazardous waste management is harmful to the environment, and more than half of providers (56%) and administrators (67%) reported they think about the environmental impacts of regulated medical and biohazardous waste often. This environmental and community concern includes drug diversion, where 53% of providers agree that improperly disposed of pharmaceutical waste is one of the biggest contributors to the opioid epidemic.
The Future of Healthcare Lies in Home Care
While most healthcare providers (90%) expect the rate of at-home care to increase over the next five years, they are concerned about their risks to physical health and well-being (75%). Those concerns include sanitation (53%), availability of resources (52%), and their own safety in at-home care settings (50%).
