Applied Compliance with OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogens Standard in Healthcare Institutions

Description

Overview

Healthcare institutions, including acute, ambulatory and long term care, responsible for direct patient care have ongoing exposures to blood, body fluids, and other potentially infectious materials.  They, among other employers are required to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) Bloodborne Pathogens (BBP) standard. The requirements they must adhere to are much more detailed than those not practicing patient care, including the use of engineering controls, including sharps injury protection, needleless devices, and other safer medical devices, and the use of personal protective equipment.

Why Should You Attend:

With ongoing and increasing prevalence of bloodborne and infectious diseases, as well as co-infections with multiple pathogens (e.g., HIV and hepatitis C or TB) compliance to the OSHA BBP Standard is more important than in decades past.  This course will describe the rigor with which healthcare facilities need to adhere to the hierarchy of controls dictated by the standard and how they influence the protection of workers and the public they serve.

If you work in a healthcare institution, this webinar will allow to you to gain a tighter grasp on compliance and some best practices to institute in your facility.  If you work for a manufacturer or distributor, this webinar will allow you to better understand your current and future customers and the challenges they face with regard to compliance with the OSHA BBP Standard.  It will provide insights, no matter your working environment, on how important preventing occupational exposures to bloodborne and infectious diseases are today.

This webinar will provide an overview of the BBP standard, identify specific areas where compliance is sometimes challenging, and describe the consequences of non-compliance specifically in healthcare facilities (i.e., acute, ambulatory, long term care). The webinar will also describe requirements set forth in the OSHA BBP Standard from the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act, including focus on the use of engineering controls (sharps with injury protection), needleless systems, innovative alternatives, and PPE.  It will highlight the importance of frontline employee evaluation and feedback when selecting engineering controls and PPE and showcase ways to improve accessibility to devices and equipment when they are needed based on exposure incident data.

Areas Covered in the Session:

• Data describing current exposure and incident data from the International Safety Center’s Exposure Prevention Information Network (EPINet®)
• Review of OSHA’s regulatory authority in healthcare and describe the inspection process
• Detail all Components of an Exposure Control Plan
• Provide resources for compliance and device evaluation (e.g., sample Exposure Control Plans, TDICT)
• Training requirements of the BBP standard
• Regulated medical waste requirements
• Signage and labelling requirements

Who Will Benefit:

• Regulatory VP
• Quality VPs
• Environmental/Occupational Safety and Health
• Risk Management
• Regulatory Affairs professionals
• Quality Managers
• Quality Engineers
• Consultants