Pediatric Hospital Worker Injuries

Employees of pediatric hospitals and children’s medical centers are at greater risk of workplace injury than employees in other types of hospital settings, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One, from the Public Library of Science. Why is work at a pediatric hospital more dangerous in terms of employee injury hazards than in other types of settings? According to that study, the answer involves a combination of shift lengths, patient density, and both patient and parent aggression in the workplace. Injury risks exist for all types of pediatric hospital employees, from custodial staff to nurses to physicians.

Our Maryland hospital worker injury attorneys can provide you with more information, and we can help you to seek compensation if you were injured while working at a pediatric hospital or in another type of pediatric-focused medical center.

Pediatric Hospital Factors Contributing to Employee Injury Risks and Hazards

In pediatric hospitals, there are several factors that contribute to making these workplaces more dangerous than other types of hospitals and medical centers. As the study cited above notes, the following are the major injury risk factors that exist in pediatric hospitals:

• Employees of pediatric hospitals often have longer work-shift durations, which means that nurses, physicians, and other staff members are at work for longer periods of time, which can increase the likelihood of an injury due to fatigue;
• Children’s hospitals often have higher patient densities, with patients who may require more frequent interactions than general hospitals, which can be difficult based on staffing numbers; and
• Patient and parent aggression, the latter of which can be a particular problem in pediatric hospitals where parents become angry at staff members and workplace violence becomes a leading cause of injury.

On average, according to the cited study, pediatric hospitals often have shifts that exceed 13 hours, and 13-plus hour shifts are often linked to higher injury rates — workers have a three to four percent increased risk of injury once their hospital shifts exceed 13 hours.

Seeking Compensation through the Maryland Workers’ Compensation System

If you were injured at work while employed in a pediatric hospital or any other health care setting in Maryland, you will need to show that your injury arose out of and occurred in the course of your employment.

To be clear, even if fatigue from a lengthy shift played a role in your injury, you can still be eligible for compensation — the Maryland workers’ compensation system is a no-fault system that does not require proving negligence or fault of another party in order to be eligible (and allows injured workers to obtain compensation even if their own negligence due to fatigue was a causal factor).

Contact a Maryland Workers’ Compensation Lawyer for Help Seeking Benefits After a Pediatric Hospital Work-Related Injury

If you were injured while working at a pediatric hospital and need help seeking compensation, it is important to talk to an attorney who can help. Occupational injuries occur with particularly high frequency in pediatric hospitals, as we discussed above, and different types of hospital employees can sustain serious injuries that require extensive time away from work and medical treatment. Most injuries sustained by employees at pediatric hospitals and in other medical settings will be compensable through the Maryland workers’ compensation system, and one of the experienced Maryland hospital worker injury lawyers at the Law Offices of Steinhardt, Siskind and Lieberman, LLC can assist you. Contact our firm today to learn more about how we can help you to obtain the benefits you need after your hospital work injury.

Source:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41411283/