By Susan Woods

If you’ve ever struggled with how to handle a work-related health and safety issue, you are in luck.  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently launched a webpage specifically designed to help clinicians address safety concerns and ensure a safe and healthy workplace.

Physicians, nurses, paramedics and other health care professionals encounter hazardous situations and exposures at work almost every day.  Hospital administrators and medical office managers are left to untangle the web of regulatory and clinical issues to reduce, report and respond to those situations effectively.  This new webpage can be a valuable resource to get you pertinent information quickly and easily.

One-Stop Resource for OSHA’s Medical and Occupational Health Information

OSHA’s new Clinician’s webpage gathers important information related to health care employers and their responsibility to develop and enforce health and safety standards and practices.  Topics covered on the webpage include:

• evaluating occupational exposures and injuries;
• medical screening and surveillance;
• legal and confidentiality requirements for medical records;
• recordkeeping – the OSHA 300 log;
• setting up a safe outpatient office; and
• protocols for an occupational health practice.

In addition, the webpage offers quick links to OSHA standards on bloodborne pathogens, hazardous waste and emergency response, occupational noise exposure and respiratory protection.  Additional information from governmental, academic, clinical and professional resources are included, such as a new educational resource on healthcare worker and patient safety from The Joint Commission, the Health Hazard Evaluation Program from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and toxicological profiles on substances from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).

You never know when a workplace safety question will come up so check out OSHA’s new webpage and bookmark it for future use.

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