Twenty-eight percent of participants reported verbal abuse and 9 percent of attendees reported racial or ethnic discrimination. Potential health risks in the home were frequently reported (table). The most frequently reported hazards were unsanitary conditions (e.g., violence, threats of violence, and abuse were also more frequently perceived as threats); threats to neighbors were the most common (55 percent), threats to family members (38 percent), threats to patients (31 percent) and aggressive pets (17 percent). Other potential risks to personal safety include evidence of drug use in the home (5 percent) and firearms in the home (2 percent).
Labor Office statistics show that home care workers suffer more than twice the national rate of workplace injuries across all industries. In addition, studies have shown that between 5% and 61% of home care workers have experienced some form of violence in the workplace. In the United States, home care workers are more susceptible to verbal abuse and assault, threats, and sexual harassment. Over a 3-year period in the United Kingdom, 1,544 assaults (including sexual assault, hostage-taking, headbutting, biting, strangulation, and use of weapons) occurred against solitary health workers. In Australia, a survey was conducted of 300 doctors who made home visits using an electronic form that evaluated their experiences over a year.
The results showed that almost one out of every two doctors experienced aggression; verbal aggression was the most common. Evaluating each home care environment would provide information about occupational hazards and provide an opportunity to plan for the mitigation of the occupational health risks faced by these workers, focusing on optimal patient outcomes. When staff are concerned about personal risk and are at risk of being exposed to numerous and varied health hazards, the quality of care can be compromised. In addition, the National Home Care and Hospice Association offers a national certification for home care aides, which evaluates home health care workers (HHCW) based on 17 unique skills. Under the standard on bloodborne pathogens, home health aides would be classified as people with a potential risk of exposure to blood and potentially infectious materials.
To answer these questions and taking into account the importance of patient safety in home health care, the present study was conducted to explain the patient safety process in home health care, focusing on chronic patients and older adults. While each state regulates the transportation, storage and disposal of biomedical waste, usually through individual health departments, the home care environment is not easily regulated. While hospitals and other designated health centers have defined protocols and procedures, home health care may not always be as clear. The population of patients served by home health care is large, growing and increasingly fragile and aging.
Fourth, healthcare providers may have limited training or experience in the area of patient safety and often have little or no direct oversight. Agencies must receive adequate reimbursement so that aides can be hired as full-time employees entitled to receive benefits, including health care benefits. Security threats included unsafe neighborhoods, aggressive dogs, aggressive or drug-seeking family members, patients with mental health problems, sexual harassment and, most alarmingly, feeling threatened by a firearm. These results document a high prevalence of a number of health and safety risks related to home care.
Taking into account the above and the observation of researchers about the existence of some unwanted complications in home care, the researchers tried to find out the interactions that occur between members of safe health care, the strategies to which these interactions lead and the models they create. There are a number of potential aggravating environmental factors in the home that are different from those in a controlled healthcare environment.
