DOES OSHA APPLY TO ME?
As part of the Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the states that operate OSHA-approved state plans establish guidelines and standards to promote worker safety and health that apply to every workplace in the United States, including medical and dental offices.
WHAT TO DO IF AN OSHA INSPECTOR COMES TO OUR PRACTICE?
OSHA can come to your practice without notice or warrant and give inspection of the safety of your work environment. Any hazards found will be cited and at times the owner of the practice has to attend court to ensure the issues are resolved.
The best thing to do is to be prepared, comply with the rules and regulations, and create a safe environment based on OSHA rules so at the time of inspection you will not get fined.
IF I GET FINED BY OSHA, DO I HAVE TO PAY THE FINES?
When OSHA inspector comes to your practice and does a walk through they will fine you for any errors they find, and these fines have to be paid and the errors have to be fixed within the time frame given by the inspector.
WHAT DOES OSHA REQUIRE FROM DENTAL AND MEDICAL OFFICES TO BE IN COMPLIANCE?
This is a very broad question, however, there are few things one can do to be on the road to a complaint and safe office:
- Have all the required OSHA Manuals
- Have all your Plans, such as the Exposure Control Plan written for your practice
- Have your SDS updated and within easy access to your staff
- Do annual OSHA required Training
- All your new staff need to be trained within 15 days of being hired in all the safety policies of your office
- All the records of training need to be kept and in easy access
These are some of the examples of OSHA required actions, however, there are over 370 points that can be found to be noncompliant and thus, your office fined by OSHA. Our recommendation is to contact Safety Compliance Experts so we can assist you into becoming a fully compliant office.
WHAT DOES THE COMPLIANCE GUARANTEE PROGRAM MEAN?
Safety Compliance Experts guarantees against OSHA fines and inspections. With our Compliance Guarantee Program, we help your practice correct all the errors found and be 100% in compliance. We do annual updates and training to keep your practice up to date with updates and keep your staff fully trained.