Online resource packed with regulatory news and expert guidance, tips & tools pertinent to professionals across the post-acute care continuum.
New guidance for employers related to COVID-19 doesn’t create new mandatory standards, but the tone of the guidance is a signal from the Biden administration of more support for enforcement, according to attorneys focusing on workplace safety issues.The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced on January 29 that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) […]
As a follow-up to its May 2020 enforcement guidelines on recording workplace COVID-19 cases, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued additional guidance to employers for reporting coronavirus-related hospitalizations and fatalities. Hospitalizations OSHA reiterated that employers must report inpatient hospitalizations to the agency if they occur within 24 hours of a work-related incident. In […]
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, employers have struggled to understand the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) position on cloth face coverings and surgical masks, specifically whether the agency requires or recommends their use and whether they constitute personal protective equipment (PPE). Although the issues may seem trivial, employers want to know what their compliance […]
News reports of deaths and illnesses from the rapidly spreading coronavirus get scarier every day. Millions of people are being quarantined. Foreign companies and governments are evacuating their people from hard-hit areas of China where the virus got its start. And even employees who don’t travel for work are getting anxious about traveling coworkers who […]
Health care providers must follow new standards for the safe handling of hazardous drugs effective Dec. 1, 2019. The U.S. Pharmacopeia Chapter 800 indicates how to handle hazardous drugs with a risk of exposure to patients, healthcare workers and the environment. Hazardous drugs are regulated through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) Hazard Communication Standard. […]
Source: Home Health Line Fines for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations have been adjusted for inflation. A pre-publication version of the U.S. Department of Labor’s final rule increasing the civil monetary penalties was posted Jan. 15. Fines that fall in the categories of serious and other-than-serious and posting requirements will go up from […]
In Part 2 of this series we covered safety tips for sharps management in a senior living facility. Part 3 will discuss explain what an exposure control plan is and what should be included, taken from Disaster Planning, Infection Control, and OSHA Compliance: A Toolkit for Senior Living, written by Karen T. Stratoti, RN, BSN, […]
The following is an excerpt from Disaster Planning, Infection Control, and OSHA Compliance: A Toolkit for Senior Living written by Karen T. Stratoti, RN, BSN, LNHA, CALA.
To adjust for inflation, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) increased their civil monetary penalties for other-than serious, serious, and failure to abate violations (from $12,615 per violation to $12,934, an increase of $319) as well as the penalty for willful and repeat violations (from $126,749 per violation to $129,336, an increase of $2, […]
Per a final rule published in early 2016, OSHA requires industries considered to have high workplace related injury and illness rates–including skilled nursing and senior living facilities–to submit workplace injury reports electronically to be published on OSHA’s new Injury Tracking Application (ITA) site. In May, OSHA extended the original submission deadline from July 2017 to […]