OSHA Audit Checklist For Dental Offices

Experience has taught us that having an OSHA inspector visit can be nerve-wracking. He may come with a list of items needing attention, and the penalties for violating safety protocols could be steep.

Develop programs to address these issues is vital in order to avoid compliance violations. Such a program should include documented training, an inventory of chemicals or engineering controls or safety devices used to reduce risks, as well as supplies needed for standard precautions.

Occupational Safety and Health Act
The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH) is a federal law which mandates employers to create workplace environments free from hazards that could threaten employee health and wellbeing. As a dentist, you have certain obligations under OSH regulations to provide this safe working environment for your staff.

Dental practices must abide by certain requirements regarding bloodborne pathogens, hazard communication and exposure control plans to protect employees from being exposed to infectious materials while also making sure their practice has appropriate protocols in place.

An office must implement a written exposure control plan and training for all employees who handle needles. This should outline how risks can be eliminated or reduced through administrative controls such as training sessions, engineering solutions such as safe devices for recapping needles, as well as personal protective equipment (PPE).

Record keeping for medical practices includes inventory lists, chemical exposure incidents and employee training records. With increasing digital processes in society today, having an document execution platform that adheres to electronic signature regulations such as ESIGN, UETA or eIDAS compliance is of utmost importance for ensuring legally binding signatures. signNow offers multiple features designed specifically to keep documents safe while meeting these regulations – our many features for secure document execution help to make this easy for our users!

General Duty Clause
Few dentists may know of the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act regulations; it requires employers to ensure their workplaces are free from recognized hazards. Understanding this provision is vital as dental offices may be exposed to hazardous substances from patients, radiation from X-ray equipment and dangerous chemicals like nitrous oxide and silica dust – among other threats.

Under OSHA’s General Duty Clause, for a violation to be cited, a hazard must be recognized, have caused or been likely to cause serious injury or death, and be addressed through feasible and useful means that are available – this explains why General Duty Clause citations are so rare: OSHA can only take action under this provision when circumstances meet four tests; in such instances as needle hazards in the workplace being recognized, the most efficient ways of mitigating risk may include engineering controls like caps and safer storage/disposal arrangements, and training employees on proper handling techniques.

Hazard Communication
Chemicals are an integral component of modern dental offices, used to disinfect surfaces that have become contaminated, prepare the teeth prior to resin restoration, and more. But they can be hazardous when handled incorrectly; thus the need for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Hazard Communication Standard that mandates employers provide employees with Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) of chemicals used at work.

One OHSA regulation that’s particularly relevant for dentists relates to bloodborne pathogens. Dentists must create and implement a written exposure control plan; provide employees with safe needle devices for recapping; post a list of chemicals found within their office with their respective MSDS documents; as well as keep records regarding employee hepatitis B vaccination or refusal decisions.

Additionally to these guidelines, there are various rules and regulations that apply to every workplace, such as those related to radiation measures, electrical safety precautions, exit route requirements and mandatory OHSA posters on display.

Employee Training
Compliance with HIPAA and OSHA standards can be challenging. Within the dental industry, inspectors will conduct regular reviews to inspect various aspects from handling waste to sterilization logs and receipts.

Employee training is an integral component of both OSHA and HIPAA compliance rules, and dental offices must train all their employees on how they will handle protected health information (PHI), such as patient requests for access or changes, as well as the process for verifying identities and responding within legally mandated timeframes.

As part of their training for working in dental offices, employees should receive instruction in Hazard Communication Standards. This requires understanding the current US system for labeling chemicals as well as the new international standardized system which came into effect in 2013. Furthermore, employees should learn how to read and interpret safety data on SDS (Safety Data Sheet) documents as well as pictograms on hazard communication labels.