National OHS harmonization.
The national OHS review panel handed down its first report for consideration by the Federal Government in October. The panel was formed following the decision of the Council of Australian Governments' earlier this year to push ahead with the idea of a nationally consistent OHS system. ...

Texas Mutual Insurance Gains 'Great Victory' in Appeals Court Case Over Hospital Bills.
AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Mutual Insurance Company won a substantial victory Nov. 13 in a Texas appeals court case challenging an abusive pattern of questionable hospital bills for injured workers covered by workers' compensation insurance. The Austin Court of Appeals overturned a Travis County...

Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton & Tripler Army Medical Center to Install Neuro Kinetics' I-Portal(R) NOTC System for Traumatic Brain Injury Testing.
'Promising' Advantages over MRIs as Company Prepares to Publish Unique Pre- & Post-Accident Study PITTSBURGH, Nov. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- In a push to improve diagnosis of returning military personnel for traumatic brain injuries, three leading military medical centers -- Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.,...

Is drug testing legal?
The Alberta Court of Appeal declined to follow an Ontario court decision that drug-testing of employees by employers is discriminatory under human rights legislation. It ruled that the employer's policy was to reduce workplace accidents by prohibiting workplace impairment. There was a clear connection between the policy and its...

Workplace accidents--Westray's legacy.
Some 800,000 people get hurt on the job each year in Canada. In fact, nearly 1,000 Canadians die every year from on-the-job injuries. What is even more disturbing is that some of these workplace fatalities may be the result of criminal negligence. Criminal negligence laws are nothing...

Will a national OHS system lower the bar? NSW's hard-won protection for workers is under threat of dilution in the push to 'harmonise' Australia's OHS systems.
The push towards a nationally consistent OHS system will accelerate following the agreement of a new timetable at the recent Council of Australian Governments' (COAG) meeting in Adelaide. The original timetable, that would have seen work start next year and finish by 2012, has been fast-tracked by...

The history of health care as a campaign issue.
IN THIS ARTICLE ... The question of whether--or to what extent--it is the responsibility of government to subsidize health care for its citizens has been an issue in political circles for a long time. Although health care has always been a major social issue because...

Workplace drug testing and worker drug use.
A large literature suggests that employee substance use in the workplace may impose high costs to firms in the form of lower productivity, increased absenteeism, and more workplace accidents (see National Research Council 1994 for a review). Partially as a response to these costs, employers have responded by implementing...

Georgia Nurses Association 2009 legislative platform.
CONSUMER ADVOCACY As Georgia Registered Nurses, we affirm the basic worth and dignity of individuals. We endorse legislation, programs and funding which promote and enable individuals to achieve optimal quality of life across the continuum. This includes comprehensive health care, education and a safe environment, as well...

Shafted: how the Bush administration reversed decades of progress on mine safety.
On the afternoon of September 23, 2001, thirty-two miners were repairing drilling machines and hoisting tunnel supports into place in the No. 5 mine of Jim Walter Resources Inc., in Brookwood, Alabama. The No. 5 is North America's deepest coal mine, tracking the six-foot-high Blue Creek seam almost half...