Category Archives: Health

by | April 6, 2011 · 4:45 pm

Hospitality Industry Pool Health And Safety: Illinois Hotel Pool Shut Down By Health Officials For "Numerous Ongoing Violations"

The order is against ABVI Management, Inc., owner of America’s Best Value Inn, 140 Venita Dr., in O’Fallon. According to Madigan’s statement, the order came after the Illinois Department of Public Health and St. Clair County public health officials found…

“numerous, ongoing violations of state law that protects public health and safety and attempts to prevent the spread of infection.”

“One of the more glaring violations alleges an inspector with the St. Clair County Health Department observed on Feb. 11 that hotel management had reopened the swimming pool and had removed the IDPH closure order notice after the agency inspected the pool and shut it down Jan. 19 for failing to address violations found in earlier inspections.”

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has obtained a temporary restraining order against an O’Fallon hotel, ordering it to keep its swimming pool closed until health officials get to the bottom of “numerous, ongoing violations” involving health and sanitation violations.

From the statement: A hearing on the injunction will be held April 6. “If you travel with children as I do, where’s the first place they beg to go after check-in ─ the pool, of course,” Madigan said in the statement. “Travelers and parents shouldn’t have to worry about hotel management not doing its job to keep pools safe, clean and free of hazards.”

An employee of the hotel contacted this evening said the pool is closed. A spokesman for management of the hotel wasn’t immediately available.

For more:  http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/political-fix/article_cff335ea-5b2f-11e0-a0dd-00127992bc8b.html

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by | March 31, 2011 · 10:05 am

Hospitality Industry Accident Risks: Texas Hotel Sued For Negligence In Guest "Slip And Fall" Injury

Pomrenke accuses Homewood Suites of negligence for not warning customers of the dangers of the wet floor or offering an alternative route around the area. She asks for an unspecified amount of money in damages for medical costs, loss of income and court fees. Pomrenke represents herself in this matter and asks for a jury trial.

A Harris County woman is suing a Memorial hotel after she allegedly dislocated her knee when she slipped on a wet lobby floor. Emily L. Pomrenke filed a lawsuit March 28 in Harris County District Court against Homewood Suites Hilton-Austin South.

According to the petition, Pomrenke was a guest of the Homewood Suites in April 2009. As she was walking in the hotel lobby with her son in the early afternoon, Pomrenke says, she slipped on the wet marble floor that had just been cleaned by the hotel staff. She alleges she dislocated her knee, bruised her tailbone and tore a retina in her right eye in the fall. Pomrenke claims an accident report was written up by the hotel manager and that she received a phone call from the hotel’s insurance carrier, which told her Homewood Suites would take full responsibility for the accident.

For more:  http://www.ultimatememorial.com/stories/239385-memorial-hotel-named-in-slip-and-fall-claim

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by | March 28, 2011 · 12:10 pm

Hospitality Industry Legal Compliance Issues: Hotels Must Be Compliant With "Americans With Disabilities Act" (ADA) Regulations Including "Mobility Issues" For "Devices Other Than Wheelchairs"

Federal law requires hotels to give people with mobility issues access to their properties, including allowing them to use devices other than wheelchairs as long as they do not raise legitimate safety concerns. The type, size and speed of the device, along with the amount of pedestrian traffic all factor into the decision.

One major change deals with the information available to people making room reservations. The idea is that people with disabilities should be able to book hotel rooms with the same efficiency, immediacy and convenience as those who do not need accessible guest rooms. The provision applies whether people are making reservations by phone, in person, on a website or though a third-party provider such as a travel agent or OTA.

Hotels must identify and describe the hotel’s accessible features in enough detail so potential guests can determine if the hotel can meet their needs, McCullough said.

Hotels also have an obligation to hold accessible guest rooms for people with disabilities unless all other guestrooms of that type have been rented. For example, McCullough said, if a hotel has 25 double-bed rooms and two are designated accessible, the reservation service must rent all 23 of non-accessible before it rents the two to people without disabilities. The rule does not apply to unique rooms such as a penthouse or bridal suite.

The difficulty is making sure that the reservation system accommodates this requirement, since the rule applies to reservations made through all channels.

“That will be a technical hurdle for your companies to leap over within the 11 months,” McCullough said. “I hope you are working on this particular issue.”

Another change requires that hotels honor a specific guest room request from customers with disabilities, even if it’s a policy of a hotel to not hold specific rooms.

For more:  http://www.hotelinteractive.com/article.aspx?articleid=20172

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by | March 24, 2011 · 7:42 am

Hotel Industry Employee Injury Risks: Video From The "Health And Safety Authority" In Ireland Demonstrates "Risk Factors" Associated With Housekeepers Handling Of Laundry

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWyqLuBRuao]

  • Manual Handling Case Study 15 Handling Hotel Linen
  • On Screen Text: Manual Handling: Handling of linen in a hotel bedroom
  • Hotel employee removing linen from hotel bedroom
  • Scene 1:
    A hotel employee has just finished changing the linen on a bed. He walks out of the hotel room and down a corridor to throw the linen into an already-full black bag. He then throws the bag over his shoulder and down the corridor further, and throws the black bag into a lift. The lift is already full of other black linen bags.
  • On Screen Text:
    Need to carry out a risk assessment of this task
    Look at how the job is carried out
    Collect information: Load weight, etc
    Identify risk factors with the job
    Make changes to improve the job
  • On Screen Text:
    Risk Factors/Problems
  • Scene 2:
    Still image of character throwing the bag into the lift. Large Red “X” marks indicate the risk factors with the job.
    Load is too heavy
    Load is too large
    Difficult to grasp
    Physical effort is too strenuous
    Bending and twisting of the trunk
  • On Screen Text:
    The new system of work: Assess risk to reduce and reorganise manual handling
  • Scene 3:
    The hotel employee put the used bed linen into a linen trolley, rolls the trolley out of the room and down the corridor to the waiting lift. He rolls the trolley into the lift.
  • On Screen Text:
    Manual Handling : Assess to avoid, reduce or reorganise

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by | March 21, 2011 · 3:54 pm

Hospitality Industry Workers Comp Risks: Virginia Hotel Employee Awarded Workers Comp Benefits After Fall In Restroom Injures Shoulder Already Receiving Medical Treatment

The Virginia Court of Appeals found that a cook’s right shoulder injury was not related to a preexisting condition so it awarded him benefits.

  • A cook for a hotel slipped on a wet floor in the restroom at his workplace and fell, hitting his right shoulder against a sink.
  • Before the fall, he sought medical treatment for right shoulder pain.
  • He required further treatment after the fall and sought benefits.
  • The hotel argued that there was no causal connection between the cook’s fall at work and his shoulder injury and that his injury was a preexisting condition.
  • The Virginia Court of Appeals disagreed and awarded benefits to the cook.

The court said the cook had different diagnoses and treatments before and after the fall. The court noted that the cook was undergoing treatment for tendonitis before the fall and was diagnosed with a right shoulder strain, contusion, and sprain after the fall. The cook received injections both before and after the fall, but they consisted of different drugs. Additionally, the surgical recommendations before and after the fall differed.

The hotel also argued that the cook failed to disclose his prior shoulder injury to two doctors, so their opinions should not have been relied on. The court disagreed. One doctor noted that the cook’s past medical history was “noncontributory,” and the second noted that it was “negative.” The court said these terms did not necessarily establish that the cook did not inform the doctors of his previous shoulder problems. Rather, the terms could have been interpreted to indicate a lack of foundation for alternative causation.

For more:  http://www.riskandinsurance.com/story.jsp?storyId=533334406

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by | March 20, 2011 · 12:04 pm

Hotel Industry Pool Risks: Texas Hotel Indoor Pool Chlorination System Sickens Dozens Of Guests

Dozens of people, mostly children, were treated for unknown respiratory ailments Saturday after swimming in a South Lubbock hotel pool.

First responders set up a medical triage in front of Embassy Suites hotel, Slide Road and South Loop 289, to treat 24 people who started having trouble breathing while in and around the hotel’s indoor swimming pool.

None of the patients’ ailments were considered life-threatening, said Chris Teague, director of Lubbock EMS.

Investigators with the city and Fire Marshal’s Office believe the problem happened when an automatic pool chlorination system released too much of the cleaning agent into the water, said Elliot Eldredge with the Lubbock Fire Marshal’s Office.

Several parents and children who were in the pool area at about 5 p.m. said they noticed an overwhelming smell of chlorine coming from the pool.

Many of the children in the pool started coughing and immediately evacuated the room.

For more:  http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2011-03-20/dozens-treated-respiratory-ailments-south-lubbock-hotel-pool

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by | March 18, 2011 · 8:19 am

Hotel Industry Accident Risks: Guests At Two Florida Hotels Are Critically Injured And Die In Falls At Properties

The Auburn Villager has confirmed that Mary Beth Goodner, an Auburn University student and long-time Auburn resident, has died in an accident in Key West, Fla., during AU’s spring break. Allyson Crean, public information officer for the Key West Police Department, said the investigation is still open and the police report is not yet available.

  • Crean said Goodner, 22, fell down a spiral staircase at the hotel where she was staying in Key West. The call came in to the police department about 3:30 a.m., and Goodner was pronounced dead at the hospital this morning.

Authorities say a man is in serious condition after falling five floors from an Orlando hotel. Orange County Fire Rescue responded to the Friday incident at the Hilton Orlando near International Drive and State Road 528.

  • The man was taken to a nearby hospital. No additional details on the situation were available, except that the hotel doesn’t have balconies

For more:  http://www.auburnvillager.com/story.html?1300391487005367

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/18/2121728/man-falls-5-floors-from-orlando.html##ixzz1Gy5Lt3XL

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by | March 12, 2011 · 10:23 am

Hotel Industry Health Risks: New York Hotel Guests Are Evacuated After Exposure And Sickness Due To "Carbon Monixide" Coming From Heating Unit On Roof

Nine people were taken to a local hospital this morning following exposure to carbon monoxide that led to the evacuation of a West Seneca hotel.

Serafini called for more police and fire personnel, who found high levels of carbon monoxide in the lower levels of the five-story hotel. Authorities said they believe the carbon monoxide may have settled on the lower floors of the building.

Three other guests of the Hampton Inn on Ridge Road reported ill effects from their exposure to carbon monoxide. West Seneca police responded to a call at about 5:30 a.m. today, when the hotel’s front-desk manager told Officer Anthony Serafini that two people on the second floor were requesting a new room. They felt dizzy and faint and told hotel workers they thought fumes in their room were responsible. 70 guests staying there overnight.

National Fuel crews also responded and found the carbon monoxide coming from a heating unit on the hotel’s roof, police said. “I do not believe any of the injuries are going to be life-threatening,” West Seneca Police Lt. David L. Szmania said late this morning of the nine people taken to Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital.

After the problem was corrected, hotel workers ventilated the building, waited for about two hours and then allowed guests to return to their rooms by about 10 a.m., Szmania said.

The lieutenant praised the police midnight shift along with volunteer firefighters from the Seneca Hose, Winchester and Reserve Hose companies. “It could have definitely been worse,” Szmania said, referring to the January 2009 death of 16-year-old West Seneca resident Amanda Hansen from carbon-monoxide poisoning while she was sleeping over at a friend’s house.

For more:  http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/west-seneca/article365298.ece

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by | February 26, 2011 · 8:09 am

"P3 Hospitality Risk Update": "Title 3 And ADA Law Changes" From Petra Risk Solutions' Risk Manager Joe Fisco (Video)

[vimeo 51945038 w=500 h=279]

Petra Risk Solutions’ Risk Manager, Joe Fisco, offers a P3 Hospitality Risk Update – ‘Title 3 and ADA Law Changes’. 

P3 ( Petra Plus Process) is the Risk Management Division of Petra Risk Solutions – America ’s largest independent insurance brokerage devoted exclusively to the hospitality marketplace.

 For more information on Petra and P3 visit petrarisksolutions.com or call 800.466.8951.

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by | February 25, 2011 · 10:48 am

Hospitality Industry Health Risks: Hotel Management Must Make Guest Room "Cleanliness" A Priority As Mattresses, Bed Covers And Bathroom Sink Areas Are Havens For Germs

“…In hotel rooms that aren’t properly disinfected, some of the germiest areas tend to be the faucet and sink areas, the flusher of the toilet, the underside of the toilet seat and the shower floor…”

“The first thing I do when I stay at a hotel is remove the comforter and store it in the closet.”

When it comes to hotel bedding, allergens are the biggest problem for guests, Tierno said. Evidence of bedbugs is an immediate dealbreaker for Tierno, but we’ll leave them out of the picture here since that problem is closely related to the presence of guests, not germs.

You can probably imagine what might be lurking in the mattress, but here’s a sampling for those who hesitated: skin cells (when humans sleep they shed about 1.5 million cells or cell clusters an hour), human hair, bodily secretions, fungi, bacteria, dust, dust mites, lint, insect parts, pollen, cosmetics … and more.

Some of the newer hotels use the type of impervious, waterproof covers Tierno carries with him, but most don’t, he said. While the covers were developed for allergy sufferers, Tierno encourages everyone to use them at home and on the road. Ask when you reserve if the hotel uses allergy barriers on beds.

And definitely ditch the bedspread, Tierno advises.

Hotel bedspreads became a hot topic when one featuring bodily fluids from several sources was introduced in boxer Mike Tyson’s 1992 rape trial. The American Hotel & Lodging Association got so many queries at the time that it came out with a statement saying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “has NEVER identified, seen, or classified ANY significant disease outbreak in hotel or motel rooms as a result of hotel bedspreads and blankets.”

While many hotels have followed in the footsteps of Westin Hotels and Resorts, adopting a duvet model of bedding mimicking the brand’s Heavenly Bed, plenty of chains on the lower end still use quilted bedspreads.

For more:  http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/02/25/hotel.hygiene/#

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