Occupational Health And Safety Case Study

In the recent years Lebanese Hospitals have faced a lot of challenges and sought ways to support better quality of care. Studies have shown that a well-managed OHS programs will help hospitals achieve this corporate goal. These programs will help hospitals identify hazards at an early stage, put effective preventive measures in place, ensure that employees are properly trained to face any workplace damage and guarantee that processes and work activities are designed in a way that promotes the delivery of more consistent safety and health performance. This program would be of great benefits for hospitals. These benefits can be summed up as follows [1]:

• Fewer injuries and infections;
• Lower absenteeism rate;
• Lower turnover level;
• Better
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Occupational health deals with all aspects of health and safety in the workplace and has a strong focus on primary prevention of hazards." [2]. As for the term “health”, it has been defined as "A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." [3]. Occupational health is a field of healthcare concerned with protecting individuals from workplace-related health impairments, injuries and illnesses.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) have agreed on the objectives of “Occupational Health”. The objectives set by the Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health in 1950 in its 1st Session and that were reviewed in 3 June 1959 aimed at [4]: (i) the maintenance and promotion of workers’ health and working capacity; (ii) the improvement of working environment and work to become conducive to safety and health and (iii) development of work organizations and working cultures in a direction which supports health and safety at work and in doing so also promotes a positive social climate and smooth operation and may enhance productivity of the undertakings.”
The roman pupil “Gaius Plinius Secundus” recognized the health risks people are probably subjected to whilst using zinc and sulfur. To shield them, he invented masks made from an animal bladder. Hippocrates, the father of medication, narrated a case of lead poisoning. He talked about how membranes have been used as masks with the aid of minimal refiners and had considered this approach as an inefficient manner of protecting.
Agricola a German mineralogist and scholar who practiced in mining field posted in 1526 “De Re Metallica” a book that shed light on the diseases and injuries encountered by miners and provided the appropriate preventive measures [7].
In the 18th century, around the year 1713 a book under the title “De Morbis Artificum Diatriba, The Diseases of Workman” was written by Bernardo Ramazzini, Father of the Occupational Medicine. It was a comprehensive book that covered all the occupational diseases witnessed in the part of the arena. Later in 1743, a pamphlet on the Poisonous Wicked Fumes and Smokes was published by the German Physician Ulrich Ellenbog. It referred to fumes coming from coal, nitric acid, lead and mercury that were encountered by gold smiths and other metal workers [7].
The year 1892 witnessed the establishment of the first safety