Affiliations: [a] Research Centre on Health and Environment (CISA), School of Allied Health Sciences of Polytechnic Institute of Porto (ESTSP-IPP), Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal | [b] Hospital de São João, EPE, Porto, Portugal
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Joana Santos, Research Centre on Health and Environment (CISA), School of Allied Health Sciences of Polytechnic Institute of Porto (ESTSP-IPP), Rua Valente Perfeito, 322 - 4400-330 Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal. Tel.: +351 22 206 10 00; Fax: +351 22 206 10 01; E-mail:jds@estsp.ipp.pt
Abstract:
BACKGROUND: The hospital environment has many occupational health
risks that predispose healthcare workers to various kinds of work accidents. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to compare different methods for work
accidents investigation and to verify their suitability in hospital
environment. METHODS: For this purpose, we selected three types of accidents
that were related with needle stick, worker fall and inadequate
effort/movement during the mobilization of patients. A total of thirty
accidents were analysed with six different work accidents investigation
methods. RESULTS: The results showed that organizational factors
were the group of causes which had the greatest impact in the three types of
work accidents. CONCLUSIONS: The methods selected to be compared in this paper are
applicable and appropriate for the work accidents investigation in
hospitals. However, the Registration, Research and Analysis of Work
Accidents method (RIAAT) showed to be an optimal technique to use in this
context.
