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Compliance With OSHA Emergency Temporary Standards to Combat COVID-19 in Health Care Settings
The U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on June 10 to help combat the unique and elevated occupational hazards that exist for health care employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of the ETS is to provide workers of the health care industry adequate assurances that precautions are being used to properly protect them from the dangers associated with COVID-19. Employers must comply with several of the requirements set forth in the ETS by July 6, 2021, and the remainder by July 21, 2021.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
07/06/2021
This directive provides instructions and guidance to OSHA area offices and compliance safety and health officers for enforcing the COVID-19 ETS: www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/enforcement/directives/DIR_2021-02_CPL_02.pdf
To help health care employers determine if they must comply with the COVID 19 health care ETS or are exempt from the ETS, OSHA has developed a decision tree: www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/OSHA4125.pdf During the period of the ETS, covered health care employers must develop and implement a COVID-19 plan to identify and control COVID-19 hazards in the workplace. As part of their COVID-19 plan, these employers must address and implement various requirements to reduce transmission of COVID-19 in their workplaces, including patient and nonemployee screening and management requirements, standard and transmission-based precautions, controls for aerosol-generating procedures, physical distancing, physical barriers, personal protective equipment, cleaning and disinfection, ventilation, employee health screening and medical management, vaccination, training, anti-retaliation, recordkeeping, and reporting.
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