Implementing the ANSI Z 136.3 Laser Safety Standard in the Medical Environment

1986 ◽  
Vol 94 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Ossoff
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Head And Neck ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Safety Regulation ◽  
Health Care Environment ◽  
Safety Standard ◽  
Care Environment ◽  
Laser Safety ◽  
State Laser ◽  
Medical Environment

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is an organization comprising several committees of expert volunteers who have traditionally determined the industry consensus standards in various fields. The existing federal legislation and the suggested state laser-safety regulation are based on the 1980 ANSI Standard, “For the Safe Use of Lasers.” 1 It was quickly recognized that the safety needs of the industrial and medical environments differed sufficiently to prompt the American National Standards Institute to form a committee to write a new set of standards for “Laser Safety in the Health Care Environment” (ANSI Z 136.3). This standard will apply not only to hospitals but also to offices, clinics, and anywhere else that the laser is used for medical purposes. This paper will outline this important laser-safety standard and describe in detail how best to implement it in the environment in which the otolaryngologist—head and neck surgeon practices.

The Conundrum of Charitability: Reassessing Tax Exemption For Hospitals

1990 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-380
Author(s):  
David A. Hyman
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Health Care Environment ◽  
Care Environment ◽  
Sharp Focus ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do The Right Thing

Tax exemption is an ancient, honorable and expensive tradition. Tax exemption for hospitals is all of these three, but it also places in sharp focus a fundamental problem with tax exemption in general. Organizations can retain their tax exemption while changing circumstances or expectations undermine the rationale that led to the exemption in the first place. Hospitals are perhaps the best example of this problem. The dramatic changes in the health care environment have eliminated most of the characteristics of a hospital that originally persuaded the citizenry to grant it an exemption. Hospitals have entered into competition with tax-paying businesses, and have increasingly behaved like competitive actors. Such conduct may well be beneficial, but it does not follow that tax exemption is appropriate. Rather than an undifferentiated subsidy, a shift to focused goals will provide charitable hospitals with the opportunity and incentive to “do the right thing.”

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