This article presents some suggestions about how to strengthen the management of medical devices so as to remove the hidden perils and risks of medical safety.
Equipment Safety ; Equipment and Supplies ; Safety Management

OBJECTIVES: Approximately 2000 phase-in substances are subject to registration according to the Act on the Registration and Evaluation, etc. of Chemical Substances (KREACH), and the expected testing cost is 2.06 trillion Korean won assuming all the test data required for registration are acquired. The extent to which these enormous test costs can be reduced depends on the availability of existing data that can be used to meet the requirements of the K-REACH we examined the current availability of test data that can be used for chemical substance registration. METHODS: We analyzed the possibility of utilizing the existing test data obtained from 16 reference databases for 369 of 518 kinds of phase-in substances subject to registration that were reported in last October 2014. RESULTS: The physical and chemical properties were available for 57.1% of substances, whereas data regarding human hazards and environmental hazards were available at considerably lower rates, 8.5% and 11.8%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Physical and chemical properties were available for a fairly high proportion, whereas human hazards and environmental hazards were reported for considerably fewer substances.
Chemical Safety ; Hazardous Substances ; Humans ; Safety Management

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to examine effects of patient safety culture and burnout on safety management activities with a focus on clinical experience of nurses in general hospitals. METHODS: Self-administered questionnaires were given to nurses in a general hospital in C Province, and 107 questionnaires were used for final analysis. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS/WIN 21.0 Program for t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression. RESULTS: The highest score as perceived by general hospital nurses for patient safety culture was for 'Immediate superior/Manager'(3.84), for burnout, the highest score was for 'Emotional exhaustion' (4.13), and for safety management activities, the highest score was for 'Prevention of infection' (3.96). Patient safety culture and safety management activities perceived by general hospital nurses showed significant positive correlations (r=.35 p<.001). The correlations between burnout and safety management activities perceived by the nurses showed significant negative correlations (r=-.37, p<.001). Results of hierarchical regression analysis conducted to identify factors that affect safety management activities showed that patient safety culture (β=.40 p<.001) was effective for controlling safety management activities. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate a need to build a patient safety culture that fits the characteristics and situations of various hospitals.
Hospitals, General* ; Humans ; Patient Safety* ; Safety Management*

China ; Equipment Safety ; Equipment and Supplies ; Safety Management

Humans ; Pharmacies ; Singapore ; Patient Safety ; Safety Management

We are reporting in this article some analyzed data obtained from inspection and related information on current situations medical devices in use. Some ideas and suggestions are also proposed here on how to systematically and legally inspecting and monitoring medical devices in use.
Equipment Safety ; Materials Management, Hospital

BACKGROUND: To elucidate the relationship between safety culture maturity and safety performance of a particular company. METHODS: To identify the factors that contribute to a safety culture, a survey questionnaire was created based mainly on the studies of Fernandez-Muniz et al. The survey was randomly distributed to 1000 employees of two oil companies and realized a rate of valid answer of 51%. Minitab 16 software was used and diverse tests, including the descriptive statistical analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, mean analysis, and correlation, were used for the analysis of data. Ten factors were extracted using the analysis of factor to represent safety culture and safety performance. RESULTS: The results of this study showed that the managers' commitment, training, incentives, communication, and employee involvement are the priority domains on which it is necessary to stress the effort of improvement, where they had all the descriptive average values lower than 3.0 at the level of Company B. Furthermore, the results also showed that the safety culture influences the safety performance of the company. Therefore, Company A with a good safety culture (the descriptive average values more than 4.0), is more successful than Company B in terms of accident rates. CONCLUSION: The comparison between the two petrochemical plants of the group Sonatrach confirms these results in which Company A, the managers of which are English and Norwegian, distinguishes itself by the maturity of their safety culture has significantly higher evaluations than the company B, who is constituted of Algerian staff, in terms of safety management practices and safety performance.
Motivation ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Safety Management

The concept of Hazard Analysis Critical Control point was introduced for implementing the 12 step procedures of HACCP in the production and the processing of food. The development and compliance of HACCP in food industry and trade in Vietnam were reviewed.
Food ; Safety Management ; Food Industry

BACKGROUND: Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems are becoming more widespread in organizations. Consequently, their effectiveness has become a core topic for researchers. This paper evaluates the performance of the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series 18001 specification in certified companies in Iran. METHODS: The evaluation is based on a comparison of specific criteria and indictors related to occupational health and safety management practices in three certified and three noncertified companies. RESULTS: Findings indicate that the performance of certified companies with respect to occupational health and safety management practices is significantly better than that of noncertified companies. CONCLUSION: Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series 18001-certified companies have a better level of occupational health and safety; this supports the argument that Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems play an important strategic role in health and safety in the workplace.
Iran ; Occupational Health* ; Safety Management*

Safety management in routine medical practice is one of the important issues that must be addressed by medical staffs, even it is hard to deal with various happenings and problems encountered in medical facilities.Here we present some arrangements in a reporting system of incidents and accidents to motivate each staffer to notice the significance of safely, and quantify the urgency and severity of reports using the originally developed management score at the Toride Kyodo General Hospital.The reports from all sections of the hospital were previously evaluated by five risk managers. This practice was effective in analyzing reports rapidly and appropriately, but was insufficient to motivate all of staffs to give much more heed to safety in routine medical practice. Instead, these reports are now discussed and analyzed by a group of people consiting of representatives of all sections and the departments in the hospital. This innovation evoked more interest and concerns about the safety management among the whole medical staff.We also utilized the management level, which was stratified into three grades from the point of urgency and severity of cases. The first level means the occurrence without urgency or need to change any systems, procedures and organizations. The second level requires some change in systems, but no urgent action. The accident at the third level should be dealt with as soon as possible by any of feasible ways. The total score, obtained by summing up a lisk level multiplied by a management level in each report, decreased between May and August in 2004, despite increases in the total numbers of monthly reports.In conclusion, the incident/accident reporting system became more familiar to medical staffs through the use of group-working. The management score and the derived total score may be available for comparing outcomes of safety management activities among different observation periods or facilities.
Reporting ; Safety ; Accidents ; Analysis ; Management