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Channel: Notes from the field – OSHA Healthcare Advisor
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Notes from the field: Don’t tell me, you dropped your engagement ring in the...

Several years ago, I was in an office when the medical assistant ran up to me saying she had just lost her engagement ring. She was hysterical! I was thinking to myself that she had dropped it down the...

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Notes from the field: “Doctor, what is that in your hand?”

One of the OB/GYN physicians was leaving an exam room holding a metal vaginal specula in a paper towel. I could not believe what I was seeing! Luckily I didn’t collide with him, but I saw him soon...

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Notes from the field: “Doctor, please, say no more!”

The physician said in a loud voice that he did not get additional reimbursement to cover the use of safety devices, and therefore had no intention of buying them. He said they were just too expensive!...

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Notes from the Field: Don’t tell me that pile of papers is your OSHA manual!

During my mock OSHA inspections, I always ask to see the practice's OSHA manual. I have seen manuals that haven't been touched for so long that I could blow dust off them. Sometimes no one in the...

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Notes from the Field: Your workplace violence prevention plan is a baseball bat?

During a recent mock OSHA inspection, I asked the office manager if I could review the written workplace violence prevention plan. She walked me to the front office area and said, “We don't need...

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Notes from the field: Have you done your annual sharps evaluation?

During my mock OSHA inspections, one area where I usually find deficiencies is the lack of an annual sharps evaluation. OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogens standard (section [c][1][iv][B]) requires that once a...

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Notes from the field: Why doesn’t that needle have the safety feature engaged?

On a recent inspection, I knew that the practice I was inspecting was using all safety devices, so what I found was very surprising! When I inspected the first exam room, the sharps container held all...

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Notes from the field: You don’t have an emergency action plan?

Recently as I was doing one of my mock OSHA inspections, I asked the manager if I could see the office's emergency action plan. She had no clue what I was talking about. As I was trying to explain what...

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Notes from the Field: Who gave you that bad advice?

In the past year I have performed over 100 mock OSHA inspections. I have heard every excuse in the book for not complying with OSHA regulations and CDC guidelines applicable to healthcare settings....

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Notes from the field: You haven’t switched to safety devices, YET!

In the past few months, I have been in eight physician offices that are still using non-safety needles, lancets, or scalpels. I have heard every excuse in the book for not switching to safety devices....

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Notes from the field: You are disinfecting that scope with what?

The tubing was actually a laryngoscope that had just been used for a procedure. When I questioned the medical assistant, she told me she was disinfecting the instrument with the disinfecting cloth....

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Notes from the field: The bathroom is your lab!

I couldn't control my shock and asked her if she was kidding me! She was serious. We both stepped inside the single stall restroom as she explained how instruments were cleaned; ON THE FLOOR!

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Missouri hospital in ‘immediate jeopardy’ fires 12 workers, installs interim...

Corrective steps being taken to protect patients and workers alike, hospital says A hospital in Missouri at risk of losing its Medicare funding within the month installed an interim leadership team...

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