Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)
About OSHA
OSHA's mission is to assure the safety and health of America's workers by setting and enforcing standards; providing training, outreach, and education; establishing partnerships; and encouraging continual improvement in workplace safety and health.
About Our Alliance
An agreement between AOHP and OSHA was signed February 19, 2004 and renewed on August 27, 2006. AOHP's alliance with OSHA provides the association’s members and others with health and safety information, regulations, guidance, and access to training resources to help them protect employees’ health and safety. The organizations work together to reduce and prevent exposure to patient-handling hazards, blood borne diseases and emergency preparedness in healthcare facilities.
The chief outcome of the alliance between AOHP and OSHA to date is the creation of a resource guide for safe patient handling practice in hospitals called “Beyond Getting Started.” Among other information, “Beyond Getting Started” includes a table that lists specific hospital departments and the kinds of lifting equipment or patient handling equipment that may be needed.
Other elements of the AOHP-OSHA alliance include quarterly conference calls, OSHA staff as speakers and vendors at the AOHP national meetings and having an AOHP member attend an OSHA inspector training session. AOHP also provides education as appropriate for OSHA inspectors.
New OSHA Directive (CPL-02-02-075)
According to the new OSHA Directive (CPL-02-02-075) released November 20, 2009, "Compliance Safety and Health Officers (CSHOs) shall investigate OSHA 300 logs entries for confirmed cases of work-related 2009 H1N1 influenza transmission."
Association of Occupational Health Professionals in
Healthcare (AOHP) signed February 19, 2004.
OSHA’s Alliance with the AOHP will provide the association’s members and others with information, guidance, and access to training resources to help them protect employees’ health and safety. The organizations will work to reduce and prevent exposure to patient-handling hazards, bloodborne diseases and bioterrorism in healthcare facilities. The goals of the Alliance include:
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and The Association on Occupational Health Professionals in Healthcare (AOHP) renewed in Dec 2011. Click here to read the renewed MOU.
Training and education
Develop workplace safety and health curricula for training and education programs on patient handling and bloodborne pathogens for healthcare institutions and workers.
Outreach and communication:
Speak, exhibit, or appear at conferences such as AOHP's national and chapter events.
Cross-train OSHA personnel and industry safety and health professionals in AOHP's best practices or effective approaches, as jointly determined by OSHA and AOHP.
Work with other Alliance participants on specific issues and projects related to the healthcare setting that are addressed and developed through the Alliance Program.
OSHA/AOHP Alliance Press Release click here to read more.
The Sonography module provides guidance for how sonographers (medical
professionals who operate ultrasound imaging devices to produce diagnostic
images) can reduce their risk of musculoskeletal disorders. OSHA developed
the Sonography module with input from the following Alliance Program
participants: Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography, Association of
Occupational Health Professionals(AOHP), and American Association of
Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN).
The updated Surgical module includes new information on laser safety,
bloodborne pathogens, waste anesthetic gases, and other topics. OSHA
developed the updates to the Surgical module with input from the following
Alliance Program participants: American Biological Safety Association,
Association of perioperative Registered Nurses, AOHP, AAOHN, Joint
Commission and Joint Commission Resources, and Laser Institute of America.
Latest Update on Alliance Activities - OSHA Alliance Update-June 2005
There have been two conference call implementation team meetings – one on March 28 and the other on May 24. During the March conference call, Dr. Bob Curtis from OSHA explained the differences between the Safety and Health Topic pages and eTools.
The Safety and Health Topic pages serve a resource for items of interest for a specific topic. An example would be Bloodborne Pathogens. ETools are developed as training tools. For example the Hospital eTool is designed by departments and also includes a section on Health Care Wide Hazards. Visit the OSHA website at www.osha.gov to review these resources.
To begin to address safe patient handling in the acute care setting, the AOHP team wanted to evaluate patient mobility assessment tools. The assessment tool used by Dr. Audrey Nelson was the tool that the team reviewed. Members felt that this was a tool that could be utilized in the acute care setting. During our call in May we learned of some other tools and want to review those before making a final decision. The implementation team welcomes any additional input from members if there are assessment tools that are being used.
This spring, Jan Frustaglia, Region 2 Director and Carolyn (Kirkpatrick) Amrich, AOHP member and supervisor of Employee Health at Children’s Medical Center, Dallas, Texas were invited to make a presentation on safe patient handling and bloodborne pathogens to approximately 50 Region VI OSHA consultants. This was the first time that AOHP had the opportunity to be a part of training for OSHA.
OSHA is also seeking examples of success stories in healthcare facilities. These can be related to patient handling or reduction in sharps injuries. Please forward these to MaryAnn Gruden.As AOHP chapters plan meetings, keep in mind that OSHA will provide speakers. Contact the OSHA office closest to the chapter to secure speakers. Visit the OSHA website identified above to locate the OSHA office nearest the chapter.
AOHP has also been asked to review a guide that is being developed related to hospital-based first receivers. AOHP provided input into the draft guidelines last year. Once it is drafted AOHP will have the opportunity to review it.OSHA will be at our national conference in San Antonio in October and we are looking forward to having them again be a part of our national meeting. Our next implementation conference call is scheduled for mid-September.
Please feel free to share any recommendations for Safety and Health Topic pages as well as any other thoughts regarding the OSHA Alliance with me by email at magaohp@yahoo.com or call 412/578-6792. I will look forward to hearing from you.
Resource Guide
Beyond Getting Started: A Resource Guide for Implementing a Safe Patient Handling Program in the Acute Care Setting
Second Edition developed by the AOHP OSHA Alliance Implementation Team
Summer 2011
Click here to download Beyond Getting Started: Resource Guide for Implementing a Safe Patient Handling Program in the Acute Care Setting
OSHA Alliance Report April 2006
Our work continues with the OSHA Alliance in 2006. Our quarterly conference call was held in January and the renewal of the Alliance was discussed. The resource guide for safe patient handling in the acute care setting is being finalized and should be ready soon. We will notify members when it is ready.
AOHP Participates in Annual Review of Safety and Health Topics Page
As part of the Alliance, OSHA seeks the input of Editorial Board members on several Safety and Health Topic pages that are related to healthcare. A review of the Bloodborne Pathogens and Needlestick Prevention page was conducted during February and March. To visit the updated page, go to the web at http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/bloodbornepathogens/.
OSHA Resource Links Click here to view OSHA resource links
Related Documents
OSHA, Association of Occupational Health Professionals form Alliance. OSHA News Release (2004, February 19). View Document
OSHA's Distracted Driving Initiative
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) top priority is keeping workers safe. While we experience fewer fatalities in the workplace today, the leading cause of worker fatalities year after year are motor vehicle crashes; distracted driving dramatically increases the risk of such crashes. The Department of Labor through OSHA is partnering with the Department of Transportation to combat distracted driving.
OSHA is launching a multi pronged initiative on distracted driving, click here (link to this URL www.osha.gov/distracted-driving/initiative.html) to learn more.
