The concept of establishing autonomous occupational safety and health in hospitals: an abstraction proposal.
Currently, in many hospitals in Indonesia, the Occupation Safety and Health Committee in the Hospital (OSH-CH) is evenly distributed. It is based on the instruction of the Health Department of the Republic of Indonesia that obliges each hospital to establish the committee the main function of which is to prepare necessary equipment for risk management essential in the hospital. OSH-CH must also be responsible for upgrading the accreditation process of the hospital as to work units on occupational safety, fire control and disaster preparedness. However, in fact, OSH-CH has insignificant power as many people, especially the manager of the hospital, may expect. OSH-CH tends to be stagnant and irresponsive. In other words, it tends to be non-professional. The reasons are: (1) the staff of OSH-CH work as part-timers, (2) they have minimum understanding about OSH, (3) they do not have incentive and enough budget, (4) it is only to show that the hospital "obeys" the orders of the authorities, (5) managerial support within the hospital is minimal, and (6) there are no significant cases of work-related accidents and illnesses. These explain the reasons why OSH-CH has no significant power and the progress of its program is so slow. For some large hospitals this often leads to inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the organization, and in some cases it may even tend to create difficulties in conducting risk control. Based on these reasons, it is recommended to establish an autonomous OSH work unit that operates on the basis of structural and formal organizational operations. The paper aims to discuss the proposed concept of the autonomous OSH work unit established in hospitals, particularly for large hospitals. It is urgent to develop long-term capacities of the unit to sustain its reliability.
Department of Occupational Safety and Health, Ahmad Dahlan University, Prof Dr. Mr. Soepomo Street, Janturan, Yogyakarta 55164, Indonesia. widodohariyono@yahoo.com
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Hariyono
D026683:Advisory Committees / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004189:Disaster Planning; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007214:Indonesia; D016272:Occupational Health; D012308:Risk Management / Q000458:organization & administration*