การประเมินความเสี่ยงด้านอาชีวอนามัยและความปลอดภัยของแผนกซักฟอกในโรงพยาบาลแห่งหนึ่ง จังหวัดนครศรีธรรมราช

Abstract

Occupational hazards in a hospital laundry environment have a multifactorial characteristic attributed to the diversity of risk factors that could affect workers’ health. The purposes of this research were to assess the occupational health and safety risks of laundry department and to find out the method to reduce occupational risks. An audit and observation checklist initiated by the researchers of hazards and risk assessment were developed to find out the risk. The risk assessment is conducted in accordance with the regulations of Department of Industrial Work. The assessment result could be divided to 4 levels including minor risk, acceptable risk, high risk and unacceptable risk. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. This study took nine processes, and 72 hazards were found. The most critical hazard was identified from ironing activities. The risk to fingers or hands for example, they can be tabbed between the moving parts of flatwork ironer that can cause permanent disability or injury. Common issues found in all processes included poor lifting procedures and inappropriate working postures, which can cause back and upper limb pain. The workers may feel discomfort and body aches. Therefore, the hospital needs to have appropriate procedures to reduce and control the risks, i.e. the isolation of workers and machine, engineering management, administrative management, and the provision of appropriate safety protection equipment, in order to have a good working environment and encourage safety awareness for workers.