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(c) 2010-2024 Jon L Gelman, All Rights Reserved.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Anti-Wellness: Boca Raton FL firefighters union fights to light up, change anti-smoking policy

I was shocked to read this headline. Seriously, First Responders should set an example of a healthy life style. Not only shouldn't they smoke, but they should exercise and eat a healthy diet. A recent conference at The Harvard School of Public Health presented overwhelming evidence of this. Perhaps the Boca Raton Fire Department needs a major wellness program. It's working for other firefighters!
Proposal to snuff out policy.
Proposal to snuff out policy.
The Boca Raton firefighters' union wants the city to butt out of firefighters' smoking habits.
After 24 years of contract prohibitions against firefighters using tobacco — on or off the job — Boca Raton's fire union wants to change the contract so they can light up without consequences.
Currently,firefighters who use tobacco can be fired.
Union officials say they want to bring the firefighters' contract more in line with the requirements for firefighter certification under Florida law.
State law requires that new firefighter hires be tobacco-free for at least a year before hiring, but the law is silent on what happens after they're hired.
The Boca union's proposed change that would affect 186 unionized firefighters is among the outstanding issues that led the city last week to declare an impasse in its negotiations with Boca Raton's public safety unions.
John Luca, Boca's current fire union president and one of the contract negotiators, referred questions about the current...
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Mesothelioma: New findings on treatment options

Today's post is shared from sciencedaily.com/
Treating patients with high-dose radiotherapy after chemotherapy and surgery for malignant pleural mesothelioma does not achieve improvements in local relapse and overall survival, according to data from a prospective randomized phase II trial presented at ESMO 2014 Congress in Madrid.
"Mesothelioma remains a difficult disease to find better treatment options for, so we asked whether high-dose hemithoracic radiotherapy would decrease the rate or delay the time of local recurrence after chemotherapy and radical surgery," says lead author Prof Rolf A. Stahel, from the Clinic and Policlinic for Oncology, at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, and current President of the European Society for Medical Oncology.
The multicentre trial included 153 patients with surgically-treatable malignant pleural mesothelioma, who were first treated with three chemotherapy cycles of cisplatin and pemetrexed, followed by surgical removal of affected lung tissue, with the goal of complete removal of the cancerous areas of lung.
In a second part of the study, researchers randomly assigned 54 patients to receive either radiotherapy or no further treatment, with the primary endpoint being the duration of relapse-free survival.
While there had been preliminary evidence suggesting that the addition of radiotherapy might improve outcomes, the study failed to find any differences in relapse-free survival between patients treated with the additional radiotherapy, and those who were not.
...
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Doctors Find Barriers to Sharing Digital Medical Records



Today's post is shared from nytimes.com/
As a practicing ear, nose and throat specialist in Ahoskie, N.C., Dr. Raghuvir B. Gelot says that little has frustrated him more than the digital record system he installed a few years ago.
The problem: His system, made by one company, cannot share patient records with the local medical center, which uses a program made by another company.
The two companies are quick to deny responsibility, each blaming the other.
Regardless of who is at fault, doctors and hospital executives across the country say they are distressed that the expensive electronic health record systems they installed in the hopes of reducing costs and improving the coordination of patient care — a major goal of the Affordable Care Act — simply do not share information with competing systems.
The issue is especially critical now as many hospitals and doctors scramble to install the latest versions of their digital record systems to demonstrate to regulators starting Wednesday that they can share some patient data. Those who cannot will face reductions in Medicare reimbursements down the road.


On top of that, leading companies in the industry are preparing to bid on a Defense Department contract valued at an estimated $11 billion. A primary requirement is that the winning vendor must be able to share information, allowing the department to digitally track the medical care of 9.6 million active-duty military personnel around the globe.
The contract is the latest boon to an industry that taxpayers have...
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Tuesday, September 30, 2014

American doctor exposed to Ebola hospitalized at NIH facility

Today's post is shared from cidrap.umn.edu
US health care workers remain at growing jeopardy over Ebola virus.
An American doctor who was exposed to the Ebola virus while working in Sierra Leone has been airlifted back to the United States and was admitted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., for observation.
No details were available about the patient. The Associated Press (AP) today published a photograph of a person in head-to-toe white protective gear descending the stairs of a private jet at Frederick (Md.) Municipal Airport, led by an individual who wasn't wearing any protective gear.
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New Study Shows Earnings Losses Persist Much Longer After Work-Related Injury, Even for Minor Injuries

Today's post was shared by CAAA and comes from www.lexisnexis.com

Income benefits paid to workers through the workers’ compensation system replace a smaller fraction of lost income benefits than previously believed
Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers’ compensation.
Filling in gaps from earlier studies conducted by others, a group of researchers has released the findings of a significant new study showing persistent earnings losses for workers up to 10 years following a work-related injury, even for comparatively minor injuries. Moreover, the study reveals that income benefits paid to workers through the workers’ compensation system replace a smaller fraction of the lost income benefits than previously believed. [See Seabury, SA et al., “Using Linked Federal and State Data to Study the Adequacy of Workers’ Compensation Benefits,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine vol. 57, pp. 1165–1173, Oct. 2014].
Limitations of Prior Studies
Past studies from U.S. jurisdictions have generally found that injured workers experience significant losses from work-related injuries and that on average the replacement of lost earnings is low. Those past studies faced data limitations, however. For example, most of the studies relied on earnings information from state unemployment insurance (UI) records. While UI data provide rich information on wage and salary income within a given...
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A Healthy Diet In The Workplace Reduces Workers' Compensation Claims

This is the first of a series on diet and workplace health.

A healthier diet in the workplace results in healthier workers and a reduction of chronic and costly medical conditions. At a conference, Mediterranean Diet and Workplace Health 2014, last week at The Harvard School of Public Health, physicians, chefs, nutritionists, and leaders in the food service industry presented overwhelming evidence that a "Healthy Plate" leads to healthier workers.


Those who are experienced with the workers' compensation system are aware that medical issues, such as diabetes and cardiovascular conditions, lead to totally disabling and fatal medical conditions. These diseases aggravate, accelerate and exacerbate traumatic injuries and occupational diseases. They are preventable medical conditions that are the residuals of a poor diet.

While the Federal government has modified its antiquated health food pyramid somewhat, The Harvard School of Public Health has take a step forward in advocating an even healthier menu. Based on extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and a greater proportion of vegetables and fruit, the healthy plate recognizes the dangers of sugar in the diet of workers.

This poster is displayed at the cafeteria entrance 
at The Harvard School of Public Health
Co-chairs of the program, Stefanos N. Kales, MD, MPH, FACP, FACOEM, Associate Professor and Occupational and Environmental Medicine Residency Director, Harvard School of Public Health, and award-winning Chef Michael Psilakis, Executive Chef and Owner of Kefi, FISHTAG, and MP Tavernas, assembled a highly experienced team of world-renowned scientists, chefs and thought leaders. They presented the tradition and flavors of the Mediterranean diet; the science behind it; and various strategies and ideas necessary for to introduce and implement it in workplaces and schools.

While workers' compensation is the system that pays for the consequences of an unhealthy workplace, The Healthy Plate program, provides an innovated approach to making it a healthier environment. Healthy eating will limit and possibly avoid the need for workers' compensation in many instances.
….
Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). 

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Why so many injury claims from L.A. public safety workers?

Los Angeles' police and firefighters take paid injury leave at significantly higher rates than public safety employees elsewhere in California. Why? Is it more strenuous or stressful to work in the city of Los Angeles, compared with L.A. County or Long Beach? Does the city have an older workforce more prone to injury? Or is it just so easy to game the system in L.A. that filing an injury claim has become a routine matter in the police and fire departments?
A Times investigation on Sunday revealed that 1 in 5 Los Angeles police officers and firefighters took paid injury leave at least once last year, and that not only are the number of leaves going up, but they are getting longer too. While on leave for a work-related injury, a police officer or firefighter earns 100% of his or her salary — but is exempt from federal or state taxes for a year. So it is actually more lucrative not to work than it is to work.

L.A. pays millions as police and firefighter injury claims rise
L.A. pays millions as police and firefighter injury claims rise

Meanwhile, the fire department has had to spend more money on overtime to ensure that fire stations are fully staffed, and the LAPD, which cut paid overtime, has had fewer cops on the streets. Taxpayers spent $328 million over the last five years on salary, medical care and related expenses for employees on injury leave. Oh, and the state Legislature has repeatedly expanded the kinds of work-related "injuries" covered by the policy. They include Lyme Disease and HIV and stress.
Certainly, paid...
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