Update Notice: As of July 21, 2021, healthcare businesses must be in full compliance with OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), including its guidelines for ventilation, physical barriers and training. Although the ETS is already in effect, the comment period is extended through August 20, 2021. Read more about the extended comment period and field inspection and enforcement procedures for enforcing ETS compliance. OSHA covid.
From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic through year end 2020, The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued penalties totaling just under 4 million dollars to healthcare businesses. That dollar amount has continued to increase during 2021.
That’s because OSHA has promised and acted on heightened enforcement. OSHA COVID-19 rule updates became effective on June 21st, 2021. At that time, your practice was required to comply with most provisions within 14 days of the effective date but had 30 days to comply with the physical barriers, ventilation, and training requirements.
Failure to implement just one of the guidelines less than perfectly left your practice doors wide open to an OSHA COVID-19-related audit. Once investigators start snooping around at your practice, it’s easy for them to identify multiple penalties. Penalties lead to fines – that can easily add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Should you be found guilty of a violation, you will also be exposed to public scrutiny. OSHA COVID-19 violations lead to your practice name, location, citations and the associated costs being listed on their website.
Common OSHA COVID-19-Related Violations Causing Penalties
Although OSHA is cracking down across the board when it comes to compliance with its COVID-19 rules, there are three areas that have generated the most violations and highest penalties:
- Availability and staff training and knowledge of personal protection equipment (PPE)
- Failure to report a COVID-19 related injury, illness or fatality
- Failure to record a COVID-19 related injury or illness on OSHA record keeping forms
As you might expect, since these offenses have most often been cited, OSHA’s COVID-19 standards are now stricter for these offenses.
Comply with OSHA’s COVID-19 Rule Updates
The Emergency Temporary Standard implemented by OSHA lays out the rules. Some of the key components of OSHA’s COVID-19 guidance includes, but is not limited to:
- Requiring assignment of a COVID enforcement officer within your practice
- Involving staff in a thorough hazard assessment to identify potential workplace exposures
- Creating clear, ongoing communication of COVID-19 workplace safety policies to your staff
- Creating a protocol to record and reportCOVID-19 cases while being sure PHI is kept confidential
- Responding to initial OSHA inquiries through its Rapid Response Investigation (RRI) process
- Devising a secure communication system that workers can use to self-report sickness or exposure
IMPORTANT: OSHA’s COVID-19 rules include sensitive employee issues like safety exemptions for vaccinated staff and tracking employee vaccination statuses. Paid leave for COVID-19 vaccinations and for employees recovering from vaccine side-effects are also required. You MUST comply with these rules or risk being hit with huge fines for violations.
Thankfully, there is expert assistance available to help you comply. Attorney and OSHA expert, Matthew Deffebach’s online training session, New OSHA COVID Rule: Comply in 30 Days or Face Violation Penalties will show you the tools and techniques you need to create compliant documentation, combat employee resistance to vaccinations, accurately assess your practice’s hazards and avoid being targeted by OSHA. After you attend this online, expert-led training, you’ll know exactly how to correctly implement the hierarchy of safety standards, create an audit-proof incident log and implement protocols to track vaccination statuses and COVID-related PTO. Don’t wait – Sign up today!
Note: To help you comply, OSHA published: Protecting Workers: Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace.
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