The Challenge for Home Health Care
With over 75 million baby boomers now beginning to reach retirement age a huge demand will be placed on the health care industry in the coming years. This is especially true in the home care sector as more people stay in their homes and look for affordable alternatives to long term care facilities.
According to USA Today, nationwide, the number of home health aides is projected to increase by nearly 50% from 2012 to 2022. The home care industry has an exceptional challenge controlling risks and insuring the safety of their employees. Workers have minimal supervision and are inside private homes where there is limited environmental control. They are also traveling extensively on our roadways exposing them to the most common cause of death in the workplace - transportation.
When viewing the home health care industry through the eyes of a safety professional, the available controls for risk are narrowed down to “Administrative Controls” or Best Practices. These Best Practices are generally the last resolution in the safety world, with “engineering out” the risks as the first choice. But the industry does not have that option. It is often not possible to insert engineering controls into another person’s private environment.
If you are a MEMIC customer and work in the home health care industry or are just looking for more information related to the subject, look to MEMIC for assistance. At 10:00am EST on January 29th MEMIC is offering The Challenge for Home Health Care, a free one-hour webinar that will cover these issues and offer some possible solutions. Click here to register today!
