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March 2012

Preview of the Webinar on Workplace Violence Prevention

Companies often don’t think about preventing workplace violence until there is an incident that affects them, or a company similar to them, or geographically close.  As soon as something happens close to home, they want to get serious and do something about it right away.

Workplace violence prevention is actually a process that, like in quantum physics, when we talked about the observed particle, just putting management’s attention on the potential problem will start the prevention process.

A good place to start is with adjusting and updating your policies.  Perhaps your policy is outdated, or hasn’t been publicized in your organization.   Time to dust it off and make sure it includes these critical elements:

1.  It says:  We have a total no-weapons policy in this company.

2.  Employees are REQUIRED to report any potential, or even suspected workplace violence situations or incidents.

3.  There is an approved company form which every employee has electronically, to use
if necessary.

4.   Every employee has to attend a violence prevention training course, or active shooter drill, or both, annually.

The policy is the first step.  Next, the policy has to be approved by the management or by the Board, and then sent to every employee, along with an affirmation agreement that they sign saying they read the policy and understand it.

More tomorrow… or attend our special workplace violence webinar.  You can sign up at:

http://t.co/rKBuoDgt



My Take on Not Having Health Insurance to Encourage Health Accountability

I raised my children without healthcare insurance!!  Wow – what a great accomplishment!  Now they are both healthy grown men who take their health very seriously. They stay in shape, exercise, both go to the gym every day or at least every other day and I think that accountability for their own health came from growing up without health insurance.

Health insurance is a scam in many ways.  It has the proven result of making people not care about their own health, not being responsible for their own health because they figure, “If something bad happens, insurance will cover it”.

So they overeat, drink too much,  eating transfat donuts, fried chicken, french fries and go to the doctor when their arteries start closing up at age 50, or when they find out they are pre-diabetic, or have high blood pressure.

My independent health care started when I didn’t have health insurance through my company, but then I got it and decided never to use it! That has been a point of honor for me.

I like the idea that I have to pay for my own health maintenance.  If I HAVE TO PAY FOR IT, I get very picky about how much I have to spend, and the best way NOT to spend money on healthcare is to STAY HEALTHY!

A revolutionary thought!  But – hey, it’s worked for me my whole life. I have never been sick, except for scarlet fever when I was 7.   So go back and read some of my other posts about working out, eating fresh, whole, organic food, and doing yoga, and whether you have health insurance or not, you may find there’s a way to stay healthy!



Man Wants to Commit Suicide at Hospital to Donate his Organs!

Suicidal Man Triggers an Evacuation in Denton, Texas.

The emergency department at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital was evacuated after an armed man threatened to shoot himself in the hospital’s parking lot, as reported in a newspaper article. The man had sent suicidal messages to his ex-wife. She contacted police, who in turn began tracking the man’s cell phone. He was found in his vehicle, which was parked in front of the hospital’s ED. Police cleared the ED while they negotiated with him for about 45 minutes. The man told police he chose the hospital because he wanted to donate his organs after he killed himsel



17-year old imposter does CPR on patient in Kissimee, FL

Security measures in place are being questioned in Kissimmee, Florida at Osceola Regional Medical Center after clerk passes as a physicians assistant!

Hospital security procedures, including staff screening practices at Osceola Regional Medical Center, are getting a second look after a 17-year-old passed himself off as a physician’s assistant and took part in several exams and procedures, including doing CPR on a patient. The Orlando Sentinel reported that hospital management is reviewing its practices to ensure a similar incident doesn’t occur. The youth was able to secure a hospital ID badge from the human resources department by claiming to need a new one because the surgical practice at which he worked had changed names. In fact, the youth was employed part time as a billing clerk at a doctor’s office. When confronted by staff, the youth said he was working undercover for the sheriff’s department, so they would be unable to check his employment records



Man Makes Meth in his Car in Hospital Parking Lot

Hospital security cameras showed that a
33-year-old man was making meth in his car in the facility’s
parking lot before the vehicle became engulfed in flames.
The man was burned over 80 percent of his body and
later died of his injuries. The car, which was in the Horizon
Medical Center lot, was captured on security video that
showed the man mixing ingredients just before there was
fireball inside the car. A sheriff’s office detective working
security at Horizon requested assistance to put out the fire.
In examining the site, he noticed canisters and other possible
drug-related items in the car and called the drug task force,
according to news accounts



Get Ready for Severe Weather!

Whether it is Spring tornados or spring-summer thunderstorms and hurricanes.  We officially enter the season of severe weather across the U.S.

A major focus at the beginning of each severe weather season, take a few minute to get ready and make sure you are prepared, and your kids are prepared, and your pets are prepared.

You can download a complete list of preparation details at www.ready.gov but here is a
short list to review:

1.  Keep enough food and water for at least two weeks.

2.  Have a family evacuation plan and practice it often, including a meeting place.

3.  Keep a ‘ready-kit’ in your car with extra food, water, change of clothes and don’t forget to include pet food, plastic bags, diapers and other essentials that could carry you for a few days.

4.  Make sure and keep large trees trimmed to decrease the chance they could fall on your house.

5.  Use the internet, like Twitter or National Weather Service, to get breaking alerts, and invest in a battery powered radio.

6.  Keep extra batteries available to keep the radio alerts going.

7.   Keep your car gassed up, instead of running out during an emergency and finding
it’s out of gas, and remember, if the power goes out, the gas pumps don’t work.

8.  Stay alert and try to keep a day ahead of the weather!



Severe Tornados and Why We Need to Stay Prepared

The damage and destruction from the path of a tornado is incredible – and only matched by the sad stories of the survivors, if they are lucky enough to survive.

If there’s one thing that social media has improved – it is the ability of an individual in an affected area to get detailed updated by the minute on a smartphone or over the internet.

The old early warning systems were set up for radio, that was in the days when everyone listened to radios.   I do listen to the radio for maybe 5 minutes a day, in the car, just long enough to put in the CD or connect my ipod.   So the Twitter accounts and iphone-smartphone apps from CNN, the National Weather Service, Weatherbug and dozens more really help to keep people informed.

I often hear news anchors lament the over-availability of information these days, but I think the more access we get to this kind of information and other kinds of info is absolutely a wonderful thing for society and for most people!

If you do live in a tornado-, hurricane- or other disaster-likely area, the Weatherbug app is one of the best because you can set it to actually chirp if severe weather threatens.

As far as risk reduction – being able to protect yourself against major weather events is one of the threats you can more easily eliminate or at least manage.

Are there mor

“Although the average number of April tornadoes steadily increased from 74 a year in the 1950s to 163 a year in the 2000s, nearly all of the increase is of the least powerful tornadoes that may touch down briefly without causing much damage. That suggests better reporting is largely responsible for the increase.

There are, on average, 1,300 tornadoes each year in the United States, which have caused an average of 65 deaths annually in recent years.

The number of tornadoes rated from EF1 to EF5 on the enhanced Fujita scale, used to measure tornado strength, has stayed relatively constant for the past half century at about 500 annually. But in that time the number of confirmed EF0 tornadoes has steadily increased to more than 800 a year from less than 100 a year, said Harold Brooks, a research meteorologist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory. ”

 

 




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