Occupational health risk assessment at healthcare institutions: Developing a semi-quantitative risk method

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Chalak, Mohammad Hossein^{a; b;} | Bahramiazar, Ghasem^c | Rasaee, Javad^d | Fahimi, Reza^e | Anbardan, Asghar Noran^f | Jafari, Hossein^g | Nasab, Fatemeh Ramroudi^h

Affiliations: [a] Student Research Committee, Faculty of Public Health Branch, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran | [b] Social Determinants in Health Promotion Research Center, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran | [c] Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran | [d] Department of Health, Safety and Environment Engineering, School of Health, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad Branch, Isfahan, Iran | [e] Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran | [f] Department of Health and Safety, School of Health, University of Applied Science, Ebnesina Hospital, Tehran, Iran | [g] Health Promotion Research Center, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran | [h] Department of Occupational Health Engineering, School of Health, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran

Correspondence: [*] Address for correspondence: Mohammad Hossein Chalak, Shahid Hemmat Highway, Tehran, Iran. Tel.: +98 09150452388; E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: BACKGROUND:Environmental hazards in healthcare institutions affect the quality of patient care as well as personnel and patient safety. OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to develop and apply a semi-quantitative risk assessment method to calculate occupational health risk levels with regard to the sensitivities of healthcare institutions. METHODS:The present research was conducted in three phases. In phases 1 and 2, the model was developed using a review of different risk assessment methods, extracting expert opinions (N = 10) through semi-structured interviews, and using the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP). In phase 3, in order to validate the proposed method, one of the five public hospitals was randomly selected and a case study comprising 6 sections was performed. RESULTS:A total of 43 health risks were identified and evaluated using the present method, 41.86% of which were at very high levels, 16.27% at high levels, 30.23% at substantial ones, 9.3% at medium and 2.32% at low levels. The highest health risks were found in paraclinical and operating room wards. CONCLUSION:To overcome the shortcomings of the proposed health risk assessment methods, a semi-quantitative method was used in the present study to more accurately calculate the risk levels in the healthcare institutions and also calculate the risk level of each hospital unit. The proposed semi-quantitative method can be used as a tool for assessing occupational health risks as a key element of risk management. In addition, by focusing on an appropriate framework for occupational health risk assessment, specialists in the organization will be able to take significant and effective steps to implement an efficient risk management system.

Keywords: Healthcare institutions, risk assessment, semi-quantitative method, occupational health

DOI: 10.3233/JRS-200048

Journal: International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 265-278, 2021