Search

Background: Little is known about the prevalence rates of job fitness restrictions (JFR) and the impact of demographics on JFR among Italian health care workers (HCW)., Objective: To examine the prevalence rates of JFR among HCW of an Italian hospital in the years 2007-2009 and to estimate ability of demographic variables to predict JFR., Methods: The number of HCW with JFR was divided by the number of HCW in service at the end of each year from 2007 to 2009 to calculate prevalence of JFR. The variables age, gender, employment, type of contract, and place of birth of the HCW in service at the end of 2009 were compared to JFR, by univariate and multivariate analysis., Results: Prevalence rates of JFR were 15.2% in 2007, 15.6% in 2008, and 13.8% in 2009. The most frequent JFR were related to manual load handling (177 in 2007, 185 in 2008, and 155 in 2009). HCW of the female gender (OR: 1.69; CI: 1.17-2.43), aged > 42 years (OR: 1.66; CI: 1.30-2.13), health professionals (OR: 2.46; CI: 1.61-3.78), part-time (OR: 1.34; CI: 1.00-1.80), from other Italian regions (OR: 1.79; CI: 1.30-2.46), or other countries (OR: 2.37; CI: 1.46-5.12), showed statistically significant increases in JFR. Only a few demographic variables were associated with greater likelihood of JFR for exposure to manual handling, hazardous substances and organizational constraints., Conclusions: These data should be used to plan interventions to support the subgroups of HCW at increased risk of JFR

Organization is one of the most important concepts for contemporary society. Whereas in recent years industry and the private services field have adopted management criteria to establish aims and methods, and to manage their organizations, the same is not true for public services. So in this area, particularly in health services, the need for a managerial type of organization is particularly evident. The basic change in the approach to the solution of organization problems, in accordance with a management type criterion, is the substitution of the traditional analytical approach with an assessment of systemic type that examines relations and interactions between the various components of an organization. Of the various methods proposed, one conceptual instrument that permits a management-type analysis of an organization is the "7S" method. An approach of this type may be particularly useful for the evaluation of an extremely complex structure like that of a hospital. According to this method, the interactions between strategy, structure, systems, staff, style, skills, and system of prevalent values of the hospital's organization structure are analysed with the purpose of improving their management.