Test Your Knowledge - Multiple Facility HCWs
If the doctors in a practice pay visits to patients while they are in a nursing home, are letters from the nursing home stating that they are OSHA compliant required? What about physicians who work at the hospital too?
A.) Letters are needed from the nursing home but not the hospital.
B.) Letters are needed from the hospital but not the nursing home.
C.) Letters are needed from both the hospital and nursing home.
D.) No letters are needed.
D.) Letters from another facility stating compliance are not required. However, when an employee works in two (or more) settings, OSHA considers the employee's safety to be a joint responsibility.
The physician's primary employer needs to provide their OSHA annual retraining, ensure safety while in the primary facility, supply appropriate PPE, etc. The nursing home or hospital would be responsible for providing a safe work environment at their location, such as ensuring safety needles are used for injections given at their facility, having proper patient lift devices, providing PPE to be used in their facility, etc. The nursing home or hospital could be cited by OSHA as the employer "who created or controlled the hazard," even though they are not the physician's primary employer.
For more information about determining responsibility when employees work in several facilities, check out OSHA's Frequently Asked Questions. For details on how to administer a compliant program at you facility reference Tab 2 of your Quality America OSHA Safety Program Manual or Dental OSHA Safety Program Manual.
Posted by Quality America on January 22, 2008 | Comments (0)
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