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Volume 11, Number 7—July 2005
Perspective

Occupational Deaths among Healthcare Workers

Kent A. Sepkowitz*Comments to Author  and Leon Eisenberg†
Author affiliations: *Memorial-Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA; †Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Main Article

Table 1

Occupation-specific death rates for US healthcare workers*

Occupation Number employed (× 103) Total deaths Death rate
Emergency medical services 116–170 11 64–95
Physicians 340–820 10 12–29
Registered nurses 2,300 18 8
Technologists and technicians 650 18 28
Home nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants 1,700 13 8

*Rates expressed per 1 million workers. Numbers reflect 3-year average (2000–2002) of violent deaths and do not include infectious causes. Emergency medical services deaths reflect 4-year average (1999–2002) and exclude deaths sustained in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in 2001. Range of number employed reflects 2 different federal databases (see text) (12,13,16,17).

Main Article

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Page created: April 23, 2012
Page updated: April 23, 2012
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