Administrative Staff Workers Research Articles

The 21st Century Cures Act Information Blocking Rule in Post-Acute Long-Term Care

Included as part of the 21st Century Cures Act, the information blocking rule entered the first compliance phase in April 2021. Under this rule, post-acute long-term care (PALTC) facilities must not engage in any activity that interferes with accessing, using, or exchanging electronic health information. In addition, facilities must respond to information requests in a timely fashion and allow records to be readily available to patients and their delegates. Although hospitals have been slow to adapt to these changes, skilled nursing and other PALTC centers have been even slower. With a Final Rule enacted in recent years, awareness of the information-blocking rules became more crucial. We believe this commentary will help our colleagues interpret the rule for the PALTC setting. In addition, we provide points of emphasis to help guide those providers and administrative staff workers toward compliance and avoid potential penalties.

Ergonomic Evaluation of Workstation of University Administrative Staff in Rawalpindi and Islamabad

Background: Workstation ergonomic designs, if inappropriate, can lead to exposure to risk factors of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The objective of this study was to evaluate workstation ergonomic risk factors of university administrative staff. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on administrative staff workers in the universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad from July 2021- June 2022. Nonprobability convenient sampling was employed to recruit a sample size of 351 university admin staff employees aged 20 to 60 years, both male and female, who work on computer for 6-8 hours. Data was collected through a self-structured demographic form and Rapid Office Strain Assessment (ROSA) tool. Data was entered and analyzed on SPSS v.21. The results were expressed as descriptive statistics and reported in averages. The qualitative variables were reported as frequencies and percentages. Results: The study comprised of 107 (30.5%) females and 244 (69.5%) males with a mean age of 34.80 ± 9.118 years. Results showed that the mean total ROSA score was 6.07 ±1.195. Categorizing the risk level, 242 (68.9%) fell in high risk and only 30 (8.5%) were classified in low-risk and those in the warning zone were 79 (22.5%). The highest at risk score was observed for keyboard and lowest for chair height of workstation. Total ROSA score was highest in administrative accounts department with a mean of 6.47±1.080. Conclusion: The university administrative staff were at considerably higher risk of developing work-related musculoskeletal disorders due to poor ergonomic computer workstations. The highest score was observed for keyboard placement, followed by back support. Moreover, individuals working in the administrative accounts department were at the highest ergonomic risk.

Human biomonitoring of metals in workers at the waste-to-energy incinerator of Turin: An Italian longitudinal study.

Evidence of negative health effects of solid waste management is uncertain. Available reviews suggests the use of biomarkers in human biomonitoring (HBM) to detect low exposure levels. In September 2013, a waste-to-energy plant located in the Turin (Italy) went into operation. The SPoTT (acronym for Population health Surveillance in the Turin incinerator's area) monitoring program was set up to assess the potential health impact caused by the plant. The paper illustrates the results of HBM of metals in the workers before the plant went into operation and then at 1 year and 3 years. This study is one of the few focusing on workers with a longitudinal design (the first in Italy). Eighteen metals in urine and lead in blood were determined by sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Information on participant habits and other characteristics that could potentially affect metals concentrations were collected via a structured questionnaire. Subjects were classified according to their work role at the facility: administrative staff workers (AW); plant workers (PW). Nonparametric methods were used to evaluate the changes in metals concentration over time. Comparison of the metals concentration in the samples taken at baseline and at the following two-time points shows a general decrease in levels: urinary concentration of beryllium (Be), cobalt (Co), mercury (Hg), Ir, nickel (Ni), tin (Sn), thallium (Tl), and blood level of lead (Pb) among the PW and Ir and Pd among the AW were significantly lower at T2 versus baseline. A decrease was also recorded in arsenic (As) among the PW and in cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), palladium (Pd), rhodium (Rh), and zinc (Zn) for both groups, whereas the levels of copper (Cu) and vanadium (V) remained unchanged over time. The downward trend remained also after taking confounding factors into account. The only exceptions were Mn, Pt, Sb among the PW: increase levels between T0 and T2 were recorded, which cannot be specifically attributable to the plant activity. The median urinary and blood concentrations of the metals were lower than those reported in the literature and were below the occupational reference values at all three-time points. Our results are consistent with those reported for the cohort of local residents and with the ambient air measurements.

Occupational impact of increased dust duration on pulmonary capacities of workers.

Occupational lung diseases are usually caused due to chronic exposure to dust or irritating toxic substance. In India, morbidity due to occupational lung diseases has been reported to be high. Therefore present study was carried out to determine the impact of long term occupational barites dust exposure on pulmonary capacities of workers. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 322 participants within age group of 22-60 years in 2013. Data regarding demographic, behavioural & occupational characteristics were collected by pre-designed questionnaire. Spirometry is an important tool for detection of pulmonary diseases in its earlier stages. Pulmonary functions were assessed by Schiller spirometry in 240 surface mine exposed workers who engaged in direct mining activities & 92 age matched healthy administrative staff workers as non exposed workers. Results: It was observed that 15.8% of exposed workers had restrictive pulmonary impairment as compared to 6.5% among non-exposed workers and the difference was statistically significant (p

Effect of Attitudes in the ethics of the public job of the individual تأثير الاتجاهات في أخلاقيات الوظيفة العامة للفرد عبد الرزاق ابراهيم الشيخلي رياض عبد الواحد موسى

Attitude is an important subject that has attracted researchers and thinkers in organizational theory and organizational behavior because of its great importance in various field studies. Field evidence suggests that individuals in their daily lives or careers respond to specific events through a set of internal tendencies Internal tendencies are negative or positive and systematic. These trends tend to be invisible, not limited to certain boundaries, and involve a significant number of individuals within organizations or society. The research aims to identify the impact of trends in the ethics of public service workers for individuals, through a sample of (72) doctors and (60) administrative staff workers at Al-Hussein Medical City in Karbala.The two researchers used questionnaire in order to collect the necessary data, and was subjected to a series of statistical analyzes in order to test the hypothesis, which states that there is a significant effect of values in the public service ethic of the individual. At the end of the research, the researchers concluded a number of conclusions, including that the trends have an effective and specific role to influence the behavior of doctors and administrators in the hospital and senior management should take this into account. Doctors and administrators have a key role in promoting ethical and cultural values in order to achieve a good and efficient functioning in the hospital.

Application of urine mutagenicity to monitor coal liquefaction workers

The Salmonella/microsomal assay was used to monitor workers' urine for mutagenicity as a potential indicator of human exposure to mutagens/carcinogens. Urine samples from 57 workers at a coal liquefaction pilot plant in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, were assayed for mutagenicity in a double blind study. Urine samples were collected twice during plant operations and once when the individuals were away from the plant for at least 48 h. In 7 individual smokers (5 operator/maintenance workers and 2 administrative staff workers) there was an indication of enhanced urine mutagenicity during work periods. Urine mutagenicity of nonsmokers from the pilot plant was significantly higher than that of an additional control group of nonsmokers from Lexington, Kentucky. While cigarette smoking was the major factor affecting urine mutagenicity, no significant mutagenicity that could be directly attributed to the pilot plant workers' environment was evident.