Online Continuing Education: February 2012

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Fewer Layoffs in 2012, Says Contractors Survey

The year 2012 is starting out right for workers in the construction sector. Based on the survey by the Associated General Contractors of America and Computer Guidance Corp., much fewer construction firms are planning to lay off employees this year than at any time in the last few years.

For much of the industry, that means a stronger demand for retrofits and new construction—good news for contractors, especially those who have already finished their continuing education contractor (or contractor CE).

The survey results, to be included in the 2012 Construction Industry Hiring and Business Outlook, indicate that though the construction outlook is mixed, many contractors are anticipating expansion in bellwether private-sector market segments.

Stephen E. Sandherr, the association's CEO, noted that only 9 percent of the surveyed firms in 2012 are planning to shed manpower this year, compared with 37 percent in 2011 and 55 percent in 2010. Even better, 32 percent of the firms report that they plan to add new people in 2012, half of them saying they are hiring six or more new employees in the next 12 months.

For instance: 57 percent of firms (the highest percentage among all states) in Wisconsin expect to hire new staff this year, while 16 percent of firms (the least among all states) in Virginia plan to add staff in 2012. On the other end, some 18 percent of firms in Missouri plan layoffs this year, the highest percentage of any state; South Carolina reported no layoffs this year.

To help enable contractors to meet the incoming market demand, training providers such as IndustrialInstitute.com provide the continuing education contractor and contractor CE programs that contractors need to renew their licenses.

OSHA Updates – OSHA and APCA Alliance

OSHA announced this January 2012 that it has renewed its alliance with the American Pipeline Contractors Association (APCA) to line up with its objectives of protecting workers from work hazards associated with trenching and excavation, hydrostatic testing, and of course, during equipment operation.

Most employers, especially those engaged in pipeline projects, require for employment OSHA 30 certification (for supervisors) and OSHA 10 hour training (for workers), and 40 Hour HAZWOPER training (in certain worksites) to ensure safety and health conditions at worksites.

"[O]ne of our goals is to ensure that appropriate precautions are taken to protect workers during pipeline construction for the oil and gas industry," said David Michaels, assistant secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.

The two-year agreement entails sharing of information on occupational safety and health standards, and worker rights and employer responsibilities via such assemblies as fora and exhibits. The 14,000-strong APCA addresses safety, environmental and security issues within the pipeline industry among pipeline contractors, manufacturers and suppliers of pipeline-related products and services.

OSHA’s Alliance Program provides the federal work-safety watchdog another way to work closely with groups promoting workplace safety and health to prevent injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. OSHA coordinates with these groups to develop compliance-assistance tools and to educate workers and employers about their rights and responsibilities.

OSHACampus.com provides online OSHA training including OSHAcampus.com 10 Training and OSHAcampus.com 30 course for workers, supervisors, and contractors, as well as 40 Hour HAZWOPER training.

Medical Coding – AMA Against ICD-10

The American Medical Association (AMA) is strongly urging Congress to stop the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's implementation of the ICD-10 code set. The appeal, contained in a letter, also urged the lawmakers to call on stakeholders to find a replacement for ICD-9, the current code set.

Set for implementation on Oct. 1, 2013, ICD-10 will require doctors and their office staff to deal with a staggering 68,000 codes, five times more than the current 13,000 codes of ICD-9. Significantly, it also entails providers of medical billing and coding training to update their course contents.

AMA contended in no uncertain terms in its letter that ICD-10 is devoid of any direct benefit to individual patient care and will only hugely burden medical practice. It also pointed out that the implementation will only compete with other expensive transitions involving quality and health information technology (IT) reporting programs.

In the letter, AMA CEO James L. Madara, MD, said that derailing ICD-10 and finding "an appropriate replacement for ICD-9 will help to keep adoption of [electronic health records] and physician participation in quality and health IT programs on track and reduce costly burdens on physician practices."

Whether AMA is right or not in its protest, the transition to ICD-10 is a major industry undertaking. Meditec.com medical transcription training and pharmacy technician classes, offers medical billing and coding training to those who want to take advantage of this suddenly-much-in-demand career.

OSHA Penalties and Violations – Polymerics Inc.

Medical Coding Update – ICD-10

Training for Veterans and MyCAA Beneficiaries from Meditec.com

The U.S. veteran’s road to social integration and gainful employment after a tour of duty is paved with good intentions. But it’s not an easy one, as many veterans have found to their frustration and dismay.

Despite solid qualifications and skills—the latter, often forged and honed in the most difficult of conditions—jobs have anomalously been difficult to come by after they are discharged from the service. In fact, some 30 percent of all young veterans, through no fault of theirs, have fallen from the ranks of heroes to the ranks of the unemployed within months of their return. As shameful as that may seem, it is not all.

The average military family relocates every two or three years, with the family relocating six or seven times during a typical 20-year military career of the military head of the family. That portable lifestyle disrupts the constancies that civilian families take for granted: friends, schooling, and, especially, employment.
In a study of military families with military fathers and civilian mothers, researchers discovered that the more often the family moves, the lower the mother's wages become. The finding was not totally unexpected.

"Every two or three years, the military spouse’s career is disrupted,” reported Donald Haurin, a professor of economics and finance at Ohio State University and the co-author of the survey. “She starts in a job, earns a couple of years of job tenure and then has to start all over again, which has a penalty in terms of a lower salary."

The researchers determined that each "permanent-change-of-station" move pulls down a military wife's wages by approximately 2.8 percent.

The Department of Defense (DoD) has not been blind to the problem nor been deaf to the plaints of veterans like Josh Mehlin, a former F15E crew chief for the U.S. Air Force, who wrote for salary.com, ”Post Traumatic Licensing Disorder,” an illustrative article on the plight of U.S. veterans.

In response, the DoD has introduced a number of initiatives for the veterans as well as for the military family. One such is the Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts (MyCAA), a program which extends up to $4,000 in financial aid to military spouses who wish to get medical or legal training.

Meanwhile, meditec.com—a portal of education provider 360training.com—is doing its share to ease the veterans (or their spouses) back into gainful employment by providing online training in exactly the professions that are suited to veterans (jobs that need high skills) or to their spouses (jobs that can be done from home). Among the coursework meditec.com offers are: medical transcription training, medical billing and coding training, pharmacy technician courses, and paralegal training.

It is one small, but significant, step for the veteran to gainful employment.

Online Environmental Awareness Training

Environment has been there since the life of our ancestors and if you think of one thing that always stands beside us, that’ll never leave us on our darkest days, it’s actually nature. But how do we return the favor if we are not aware of nature’s needs and how to alleviate nature’s current situation?

Companies that already showed their responsibility to the environment by engaging on activities to be “greener” on their operations should be admired and many should follow as they are not only helping the environment but also the people. Having this program incorporated on any business operation would also increase potential clients as consumers are now looking for products that are made with the consideration of the environment.

There are trainings offered online which are cheaper but does not compromise the quality of the training. This includes the laws and regulations governing the environment to help them understand the things to be considered on their field of work. You can check out available courses for your state and enroll on them to get certification but before choosing a provider, you need to identify what types of courses are needed for you’re or your employees’ environmental training and the coverage of each.

OSHA Penalizes Walmart; Serious Safety Violations Cause Accidental Amputations

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited one of the most ubiquitous discount-department-store chains in the U.S. for repeat and serious violations of workplace safety standards: Walmart. The company now stares at a total of $365,500 in proposed fines.

Although OSHA training, such as OSHA 30 certification (for supervisors) and OSHA 10 hour training (for workers), and 40 Hour HAZWOPER training (in certain worksites), are now required by most employers as hiring requirements, many companies, including big-name ones like Walmart, still fail to observe the safety standards consistently.

"The sizable fines proposed here reflect not only the seriousness of these conditions but the fact that several of them are substantially similar to hazards identified at nine other Walmart locations in New York and eight other states," Arthur Dube, OSHA area director in Buffalo, N.Y. explained.

OSHA, following inspections and an investigation, identified 10 repeat violations and 14 serious violations. Among the repeat violations discovered were obstructed exit routes, fall hazards, an absence of lockout/tagout procedures for energy sources, no training for employees using personal protective equipment, and a lack of information and training on hazardous chemicals.

The serious violations—safety infractions that probably would result in death or serious physical harm because of a hazard or hazards that the employer knew or should have known about—included failure to develop a confined-space entry program, failure to share confined-space information with contractors, and an incomplete bloodborne pathogen program and training for employees whose work exposed them to blood or body fluids.

Knowing and implementing OSHA safety standards are required by law and OSHA training—such as OSHA 30 certification, OSHA 10 hour training, and 40 Hour HAZWOPER training—is mandatory in many states. Disregarding these safety protocols is a serious violation with very serious consequences.

Recently, OSHA came down hard on Oklahoma-based Zaloudek Grain Co. for causing the accidental amputation of the legs of two of its workers, both 17-year-olds. Both lost their legs when they were caught in a conveyor auger while cleaning out a grain flat storage structure.

"Employers who endanger the lives and limbs of their workers will be held accountable for putting them at risk," explained OSHA Dallas regional administrator John Hermanson,. "In this case, the lives of two teenagers will never be the same."

OSHA’s investigation revealed that the company neglected to put in place the machine guard over the moving conveyor auger, a failure that ultimately led to the amputations. The investigation also discovered the following failings: the storage structure's exit was not free and unobstructed; no exit signs from the storage structure; and no training for workers assigned to enter grain structures.
OSHA proposed penalties totaling $21,500.

OSHACampus.com, a leading provider of online OSHA training, has OSHAcampus.com 10 hour Training and 30 Hour OSHA Training, as well as 40 Hour HAZWOPER training for workers, supervisors, and contractors.

Implementing ICD-10 and Higher Medical Coders Salaries

ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases 10th Edition), the new medical coding “stylebook,” will not come into effect until October 1, 2013 (the compliance deadline), and some practices are falling into a false sense of security that they can somehow cram for the new codes—there are in fact tens of thousands of them, a staggering volume that is practically impossible to master in a short time, even with formal medical billing and coding training. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the enforcing body for ICD-10, naturally finds this alarming and has implemented some countermeasures.

First off, CMS has put up a web presence to disseminate information on ICD-10 and to address concerns that practices may have about it. CMS has also deployed a free service that allows a practice to receive email notifications whenever the information on its ICD-10 page is updated, information such as an ICD-10 article, a transcript, a tip sheet, even a webinar.

The ICD-10 web page has proven its usefulness thus far. For instance, earlier, CMS had posted on its web page an executive summary of its ICD-10 vendor conference. The conference gave vendors the right venue to directly inform CMS that they had implementation plans in place for both Version 5010 and ICD-10, and to confirm that they could meet the implementation deadlines. The vendors were also able to air their misgivings about the lack of a testing period for ICD-10 prior to October 1, 2013.
With ICD-10 coming in on Oct. 1, 2013, the medical coding community is understandably apprehensive of the massive change that its members need to adapt to quickly and of the effect that change will have on their careers.

A recent survey involving 12,000 coders says that they need not worry. The study revealed that despite a tough economic environment a strong demand still exists for skilled coders and that the salaries of coders are climbing.

According to the survey, some 44 percent of respondents receive a salary between $35,000 and $50,000 per year. Respondents with a bachelor’s degree expectedly out-earned those with a high school diploma $51,825 to $41,802, a difference of about $10,000 per year.

Almost 52 percent of the respondents said they have 10 years or more experience in their field, and more than 20 percent said they have 20 years or more experience. About 31 percent of respondents, however, have five years or fewer in their field. Significantly, of those with 20-plus years of experience, more than 50 percent earned over $50,000 per year, while 27 percent with 10 years of experience earned $50,000 or more per year. Meanwhile, only 14 percent of the respondents with five years of experience made it to the high-earning group.

Phasing in ICD-10 is a major and mandatory undertaking to modernize the industry. Meditec.com, a major provider of medical transcription training and pharmacy technician courses, as well as updated medical billing and coding training, is doing its share by providing medical practices the needed coding expertise to prosper in the new ICD-10 environment.

Two New Nuclear Reactors and a Million Green Buildings to Be Built

The three-decade dry spell in nuclear-plant construction in the U.S. is coming to an end with the approval to put up not one but two nuclear reactors at a cost of $14 billion and against a stiff headwind caused by the Fukushima incident.

An alliance of utilities is poised to launch the project, joining a number of other projects that will put through their paces new technologies that can help the industry steer clear of the disastrous economic and safety missteps of the past.

For much of the industry, that means a stronger demand for new construction—good news for contractors, especially those who have already finished their continuing education contractor (or contractor CE).

The widespread radioactive contamination in Fukushima notwithstanding, proponents of the project claim that a new generation of nuclear reactors and updated, more robust U.S. regulations justify the construction of the two nuclear plants and splicing them into the present grid of mixed power technologies to address the country’s energy requirements.

The project contractor, Southern Co., operates four electric utilities in the South.
"It is something we believe is a national imperative," stated Southern chief executive Thomas Fanning. "It is a big day in America."

Southern Co. has contracted Westinghouse Electric Co. to develop the 1,100-megawatt reactors.

Westinghouse, for its part, said they expect another license approval for their reactors in the very near future, pointing out that about 20 are in various stages of planning, 14 of them will use new advanced design. The company noted that most of the work will be U.S.-based and will involve an estimated 35,000 workers.

The boost in employment opportunities from the construction of the two nuclear reactors is seemingly being matched by a surge in demand for green buildings.
Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED)-certified buildings have caught the trade winds as far as momentum this year is concerned as stalwarts of the U.S. Green Building Council LEED program race to have a million commercial buildings LEED certified by 2020. Despite the quick acceptance of green buildings by the commercial sector, however, the LEED program might be in for a bit of rough sailing ahead.

The potential show-stopper is a study which found that the injury rate in LEED-certified projects is almost 50 percent higher than that of traditional construction. The safety of construction workers on the job seems to be on the line.
A team led by Matthew Hallowell, an assistant professor in architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, is trying to find out why. So far, his team has identified 14 LEED credentials that might elevate risks to construction workers.

These include a perceived 32-percent risk increase of falls when installing skylights and atriums to meet the daylight and views credit, a perceived 36-percent risk of lacerations and abrasions from construction waste management, a perceived 37-percent risk increase in installing PV panels for on-site renewable energy, and a perceived 41-percent higher risk involved in installing sustainable roofing.

“I was very surprised when I read the conclusions,” says Brendan Owens, vice president of LEED Technical Development at USGBC. “LEED buildings are substantively different than non-LEED buildings and while there are risks in all construction, we did not expect green-building construction would have higher incidence of accidents. I don’t know that a lot of people would have held an opinion that was different than mine prior to this report.”

Still and all, no one is doubting that green construction is here to stay, shaping the way buildings are constructed and the way careers are made in the building business. The best contractor continuing education and electrical continuing education are available online at IndustrialInstitute.com, a 360training.com portal, for those who want to take the green bull by the not-so-green horn.

Environmental Awareness Programs

A lot of people are claiming to be acting in favor of the environment since this is already a growing concern for everybody around the globe. The past calamities reminded us on how we exploited our natural resources beyond its capacity - without having second thoughts, we should find ways on how to help it regain its past status.

Environment has been there since the life of our ancestors and if you think of one thing that always stands beside us, that’ll never leave us on our darkest days, it’s actually nature. But how do we return the favor if we are not aware of nature’s needs and how to alleviate nature’s current situation?

Companies that already showed their responsibility to the environment by engaging on activities to be “greener” on their operations should be admired and many should follow as they are not only helping the environment but also the people. Having this program incorporated on any business operation would also increase potential clients as consumers are now looking for products that are made with the consideration of the environment.

There are trainings offered online which are cheaper but does not compromise the quality of the training. This includes the laws and regulations governing the environment to help them understand the things to be considered on their field of work. You can check out available courses for your state and enroll on them to get certification but before choosing a provider, you need to identify what types of courses are needed for you’re or your employees’ environmental training and the coverage of each.

Safety Violations and a New Industry Alliance

For a company’s failure to ensure that a shear was kept in good working condition, one of its workers has lost an arm and the company has been cited for workplace safety violations by OSHA.

Polymerics Inc., a rubber-manufacturing facility in Cuyahoga Falls and Kent, Ohio, was actually found guilty of four safety violations, including a willful violation that caused the accidental amputation.

Knowledge of OSHA safety requirements is required by law and OSHA training is now mandatory in many states. Most employers now require for employment OSHA 30 certification (for supervisors) and OSHA 10 hour training (for workers), and 40 Hour HAZWOPER training (in certain worksites) to improve safety and health conditions at worksites.

Following a complaint alleging a malfunctioning safety pin on a hydraulic shear machine, OSHA conducted an investigation in August 2011 and was able to verify the complaint. OSHA explained that a willful violation constitutes an “intentional, knowing or voluntary disregard for the law's requirements, or plain indifference to employee safety and health.”

OSHA's Cleveland area director, Howard Eberts, said that "Failing to ensure that safety mechanisms on hazardous machines are working properly demonstrates a lack of regard for employees' safety and health."

In addition, OSHA cited Polymerics for one repeat violation for its failure to do the mandatory yearly review of lockout/tagout procedures, and for two serious violations for its failures to orient its employees on hazardous chemicals and to train workers in machine-specific lockout/tagout procedures. OSHA proposed fines totaling $74,900.
OSHA is remedying such lapses in several creative ways, one of which involves creating alliances with players in the industry.

OSHA announced this January 2012 that it has renewed its alliance with the American Pipeline Contractors Association (APCA) to line up with its objectives of protecting workers from work hazards associated with trenching and excavation, hydrostatic testing, and of course, during equipment operation.

"[O]ne of our goals is to ensure that appropriate precautions are taken to protect workers during pipeline construction for the oil and gas industry," said David Michaels, assistant secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.

The two-year agreement entails sharing of information on occupational safety and health standards, and worker rights and employer responsibilities via such assemblies as fora and exhibits. The 14,000-strong APCA addresses safety, environmental and security issues within the pipeline industry among pipeline contractors, manufacturers and suppliers of pipeline-related products and services.

OSHA’s Alliance Program provides the federal work-safety watchdog another way to work closely with groups promoting workplace safety and health to prevent injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. OSHA coordinates with these groups to develop compliance-assistance tools and to educate workers and employers about their rights and responsibilities.

OSHACampus.com provides online OSHA training including OSHA campus.com 10 hour Training and 30 Hour OSHAcampus.com Training for workers, supervisors, and contractors, as well as 40 Hour HAZWOPER training.

ICD-10 Spurs Medical Billing and Coding Training

The gears are engaged and the wheels are turning for the implementation on Oct. 1, 2013 of ICD-10, otherwise known as the International Classification of Diseases 10th Edition, the “bible” that all medical coders need to follow in diagnosis coding and reporting. And despite urgent appeals by the American Medical Association (AMA) to Congress to stop the implementation of ICD-10, updates of ICD-9 (the current and soon-to-be-replaced code manual) have for all intents and purposes, stopped.

Once ICD-10 is phased in, coders will not only need to master a much wider medical terminology, but will also have to work more closely with doctors on the new codes. Significantly, medical billing and coding training will need to be updated for many schools.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is already focused on ICD-10 and just recently, under authorization by the World Health Organization (WHO), it updated its ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting for 2012.

The proximity of the changeover has medical coders scrambling for medical billing and coding training and resources, and training institutions such as Meditec.com are more than happy to provide the coursework.
However, all’s not well with the transition.

The American Medical Association (AMA) is strongly urging Congress to stop the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's implementation of the ICD-10 code set. The appeal, contained in a letter, also urged the lawmakers to call on stakeholders to find a replacement for ICD-9, the current code set.

Once implemented, ICD-10 will require doctors and their office staff to deal with a staggering 68,000 codes, five times more than the current 13,000 codes of ICD-9.
AMA contended in no uncertain terms in its letter that ICD-10 is devoid of any direct benefit to individual patient care and will only hugely burden medical practice. It also pointed out that the implementation will only compete with other expensive transitions involving quality and health information technology (IT) reporting programs.

In the letter, AMA CEO James L. Madara, MD, said that derailing ICD-10 and finding "an appropriate replacement for ICD-9 will help to keep adoption of [electronic health records] and physician participation in quality and health IT programs on track and reduce costly burdens on physician practices."

Whether AMA is right or not in its protest, the transition to ICD-10 is a major industry undertaking. Meditec.com, which also provides medical transcription training and pharmacy technician classes, offers medical billing and coding training to those who want to take advantage of this suddenly-much-in-demand career.

More Green Construction Looming in California, Fewer Layoffs Expected

Following the generally surprising news of heightened demand for green buildings (both residential and commercial) amid a sluggish housing market, the board of directors of the California-based Build It Green got a major boost early this year when three green-building and energy-efficiency leaders agreed to come aboard. The new directors—Carol Roberts of Energy Inspectors, Anne Lee of the Energy Coalition, and Joshua Brock of San Diego Gas & Electric—live and operate in Southern California communities, where, coincidentally, Build It Green has noted increased demand for its initiatives.

Their joining Build It Green portends a green future for California’s construction sector.

The strengthening of the market for green construction, especially in a dull housing market, is important news for contractors, particularly those who have already finished their continuing education contractor (or contractor CE), who have gotten long in the tooth waiting for the sector to boom again.

Roberts is the green programs director at Energy Inspectors, a position that has enabled her to help project teams for many builders and developers attain certification through such programs as LEED for Homes, GreenPoint Rated, and Energy Star.

Lee is the director of projects of The Energy Coalition, a nonprofit group that puts together sustainable energy partnerships with local authorities, their communities, and the energy utilities that service them.

Brock is program advisor for San Diego Gas & Electric in the Local Government Partnerships Program, coordinating with public agencies across SDG&E's service territory to implement energy-efficiency programs.

Meanwhile, the year 2012 is starting out right for workers in the construction sector. Based on the survey by the Associated General Contractors of America and Computer Guidance Corp., much fewer construction firms are planning to lay off employees this year than at any time in the last few years.

For much of the industry, that means a stronger demand for retrofits and new construction—good news for contractors, especially those who have already finished their continuing education contractor (or contractor CE).

The survey results, to be included in the 2012 Construction Industry Hiring and Business Outlook, indicate that though the construction outlook is mixed, many contractors are anticipating expansion in bellwether private-sector market segments.
Stephen E. Sandherr, the association's CEO, noted that only 9 percent of the surveyed firms in 2012 are planning to shed manpower this year, compared with 37 percent in 2011 and 55 percent in 2010. Even better, 32 percent of the firms report that they plan to add new people in 2012, half of them saying they are hiring six or more new employees in the next 12 months.

For instance: 57 percent of firms (the highest percentage among all states) in Wisconsin expect to hire new staff this year, while 16 percent of firms (the least among all states) in Virginia plan to add staff in 2012. On the other end, some 18 percent of firms in Missouri plan layoffs this year, the highest percentage of any state; South Carolina reported no layoffs this year.

To help enable contractors to meet the incoming market demand, training providers such as IndustrialInstitute.com provide the continuing education contractor and contractor CE programs that contractors need to renew their licenses.

Are you environmentally aware?

For most people, the word “environmental awareness” means two things - either being sensitive with the current situation of Mother Nature and being conscious with one’s surroundings.

Let’s talk about the latter that I will relate with the news about a jogger hit by a plane that needed to do an emergency landing. The main reason, as reported, why he wasn’t able to spot the airplane coming was because of his iPod. Many of us are not really “listening” to things that are happening around us. We should always consider the possible risks we may face once we choose to ignore our surroundings and just focus on ourselves alone.

Moving on the second definition - it is basically being sensitive with our environment and the calamities happening worldwide. Some people act positively on it by engaging themselves to green living while others continue with their regular lives. There are a lot of reasons why one person is not taking part on this growing concern - he might not know what to do, where to start, and how to exactly help out.

Environment awareness is a choice that every person can make. There are many available materials to read and videos to watch about saving the environment. Companies and organization in some location are required to follow the guidelines set by EPA or Environmental Protection Agency and obtain licenses or certifications that will prove that they would do no harm in the area of their operation. Various states require environmental management planning before any project starts as a basis if the company is going to be certified and allowed to perform their operations.

Huge companies mostly hire specialists with environmental training background to easily incorporate the standards with the project while others implement in-house awareness programs to involve all employees in their concern with the environment. Whatever project you may have, either for personal or public gain you should make sure that you’re not making any damaging affect with the community surrounding you.

Environmental awareness is both an action and knowledge that should go together to create a positive result for mankind. Should you need any assistance or additional information on environmental awareness training, you may visit EPACampus.com.

Whistling Up the Whistleblower Protection Program

Your construction boss (who happens also to be the owner of the company) often requires more people on the scaffold than it was built to carry. It’s obviously an accident waiting to happen. You’d like to file a protest, but are afraid that you’d lose your job. Sounds familiar? Can you be protected from retaliation?

Retaliation against the whistleblower in the workplace has again come into the spotlight following the recent spate of fatal scaffolding accidents across the country and the announcement this August by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of new measures to upgrade the Whistleblower Protection Program.

"The ability of workers to speak out and exercise their legal rights without fear of retaliation is crucial to many of the legal protections and safeguards that all Americans value," said OSHA assistant secretary Dr. David Michaels in the new release. "The new measures will significantly strengthen OSHA's enforcement of the 21 whistleblower laws that Congress charged OSHA with administering."

You can find the full story here: www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=20394

As a worker, it’s equally important that you’re fully aware of your safety rights at the workplace and that you know what you can do to make it safer for you there. That’s why most responsible companies require programs such as the OSHA 10 hour training and the 30 hour OSHA training.

Practical Tips for the Medical Transcriptionist

Quick: What’s the difference between a medical transcriber and a medical transcriptionist? If you answered that the first is the equipment and the second is the person who uses that equipment, then you’re well on your way to success in the field of medical transcription.

You see, medical transcription demands of its practitioners not just precision but also a wide stock of knowledge. You won’t last long in the business if you don’t have both.

Now that you’re embarking on a medical transcription career training, here are some practical tips to transcribe by:

1. Don’t rush. You’re not in the ER; you’re in a field where accuracy is paramount, where a small error could snowball into something that can endanger someone’s health. Some tend to liken medical transcription to other types of transcription. It’s not a good comparison. Transcribing medical records is a lot more demanding on your accuracy, sense of fidelity, alertness, and knowledge of the field. Slow down. Advice: Set your transcribing machine at a slower speed.

2. Right References. Be right. That is, be correct based on the right references. The medical profession is a science not an art (notwithstanding terms like “medical opinion” or “the medical arts”). In fact, it is much more a science now than it was just 10 years ago, what with the advent of genetic engineering, stem-cell research, and nanotechnology. So, arm yourself with the right reference materials: an updated copy of the Physician's Desk Reference, for one; bookmarks to reputable medical websites and pharmaceutical companies, for another. You may even want to have a basic Latin-English dictionary on hand since most ailments go by a Latin name. You’ll need to take pains to look up unfamiliar drug names and medical terms with Latin names so you can put in context the medical notes you’re transcribing.

3. Leave Blank an Unfamiliar Word. If you’re in doubt, leave a blank (or an easily noticeable marker) in place of the word you can’t decipher. Don’t guess (“it sounds like”) because there’s no such thing as a half-right word. Play it safe because it is the correct thing to do. When you’re ready to proofread, simply refer to your markers and go back to each spot on your recording where the problematic words appeared. Again, slow your machine down.

Now, you’re all set.

Online Continuing Education