From the Back Cover
This book is a practical guide for preventing occupational exposures to bloodborne and infectious disease in health care. It is a timely and essential resource given that people working in healthcare settings sustain a higher incidence of occupational illness than any other industry sector, and at the time of publication of this book we are in the midst of a global pandemic of COVID-19. While the guide is focused on health care primarily, it would be useful for preventing exposures to essential workers in many other industries as well.
The guide offers easy-to-follow instruction, all in one place, for creating, implementing, and evaluating occupational health and safety programs. Readers have practical information that they can use now to either build a new program or expand an existing one that protects workers from occupationally associated illness and infection. With a focus on the public health significance of building better, safer programs in health care, the book provides not just the evidence-based or data-driven reasoning behind building successful programs, but also includes sample programs, plans, checklists, campaigns, and record-keeping and surveillance tools. Topics explored among the chapters include:
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Regulatory Compliance - Other Regulatory Requirements, National Standards, and Accreditation - Performing a Hazard Assessment and Building an Exposure Control Plan - Engineering Controls and Safer Medical Devices - Personal Protective Equipment Placement and Use - Facing a Modern Pandemic
Preventing Occupational Exposures to Infectious Disease in Health Care is a comprehensive resource for both seasoned and novice professionals with primary, secondary, or ancillary responsibility for occupational or employee health and safety, infection prevention, risk management, or environmental health and safety in a variety of healthcare or patient care settings. It also would appeal to those working in public health, nursing, medical, or clinical technical trades with an interest in infection prevention and control and/or occupational health and infectious disease.
Amber Hogan Mitchell, DrPH, MPH, CPH, is president and executive director of the International Safety Center. The Center distributes the Exposure Prevention Information Network (or "EPINet") free to hospitals to measure occupational exposures to blood and body fluid and other potentially infectious materials that cause illness and infection in the working population. EPINet is the world's most widely used surveillance tool for this type of data.
Dr. Mitchell's career has been focused on public health and occupational safety and health related to infectious disease. She has worked in the public, private, and academic sectors. Dr. Mitchell began her career as the very first OSHA National Bloodborne Pathogens Coordinator as a Senior Industrial Hygienist and has received several Secretary of Labor Excellence awards for her work on healthcare worker safety as well as bioterrorism and public preparedness. She sat on a team of dedicated professionalsthat integrated the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act into the regulatory landscape.
Dr. Mitchell has held regulatory and medical affairs positions for medical device companies. As a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) doctoral scholar, she completed her Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) degree from the University of Texas School of Public Health. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in psychology from Binghamton University and a Master's in Public Health from The George Washington University. Dr. Mitchell is Certified in Public Health as an esteemed member of the very first CPH cohort offered by the National Board of Public Health Examiners. She was the 2019 Chair of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA).
Dr. Mitchell continues to serve the country as a senior science advisor for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) for Worker Training Program for COVID-19. She is also Adjunct Faculty at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
