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Update your OSHA safety manual

OSHA Watch, September 1, 2008

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login.

Hepatitis B vaccination and waste anesthetic gas

This month, Quality America focuses on hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination documentation and protecting workers from exposure to waste anesthetic gases. As usual, download updates on these subjects using the password on p. 8 of the PDF of this issue.

Documenting hepatitis B vaccinations

A vaccination record is a useful tool in assisting healthcare professionals when administering postexposure counseling and treatment to workers following a needlestick or sharps injury, and OSHA requires employers to record the HBV vaccination status of each employee covered under the bloodborne pathogens standard.

Now that HBV vaccination is common among healthcare workers, OSHA places more responsibility on employers to obtain HBV vaccination information from previous employers. Employers must make every effort to obtain reliable records of an employee’s vaccination status, including contacting the previous employer or facility where the vaccination was administered, according to “Documentation of Employees’ Hepatitis B Vaccination Status,” an OSHA letter of interpretation issued in 2007. If documentation from the previous employer is unavailable, you must document your effort to obtain it.

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login.

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