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Tip of the week: Implement and value a safety committee

Contemporary Long-Term Care Weekly, September 3, 2009

An important protocol for administrators to target is establishing a safety committee. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends such a committee and advises that it should meet at least monthly. Administrators should make sure that, in addition to themselves, nursing and infection control representatives are present, along with Human Resources (HR) personnel, the person delegated to conduct safety training in the facility, and maintenance or plant operations personnel.
Your safety committee should create a written safety and health plan, which should incorporate:

• Safety and health inspections done by the internal staff and documented regularly
• Safety analyses provided at monthly meetings
• Exposure monitoring, which is very important, especially in terms of having updated material safety data sheets
• Recordkeeping completed by HR personnel, with accidents and illnesses related to work conditions communicated during each months safety meeting
• Physical plant specifications so maintenance personnel are mindful of potential issues and the need for timely corrections
• Emergency plans concerning policies and procedures that are delineated to cover specific contingencies that may arise and pose a threat to worker safety
• Employee training concerning what has been completed, what is needed, and whether documentation is appropriate to show this, as well as some level of competency skills that can be noted in the files
• Safety and health program reviews evaluating the in-house program for its adequacy and helping to effectively convey knowledge to workers            

This is an excerpt from HCPro’s book, The Long-Term Care Administrator’s Field Guide, by Brian Garavaglia, PhD.

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