As healthcare employers should know, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration released a COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) (extensively discussed in our June 15, 2021 blog post), which became effective on June 21, 2021 . The ETS imposes significant responsibilities and obligations on those employers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it also teased that OSHA was providing significant resources (including a model plan) to assist with compliance, although most of those resources were nowhere to be found on the OSHA website – until now!
As of June 23, 2021, OSHA has significantly augmented its resources to its ETS webpage. The following resources are intended to assist employers providing healthcare services or healthcare support services in implementing certain specific requirements of ETS:
- COVID-19 Plan Template – Employers must must develop, implement, monitor, and update a plan for each workplace.
- COVID-19 Healthcare Worksite Checklist & Employee Job Hazard Analysis – As part of the mandated COVID-19 plan, employers must conduct a workplace-specific COVID-19 hazard assessment.
- Reporting COVID-19 Fatalities and In-Patient Hospitalizations to OSHA – OSHA explains the changes to the normal reporting procedures for work-related hospitalizations and fatalities.
- Employer Notification Tool– Employers have certain notification obligations to employees and other employers with employees in the same workplace upon learning about a COVID-19-positive individual in that workplace (other than COVID-19 treatment areas, such as emergency rooms, testing sites, COVID-19 wards, etc.).
- Communication and Coordination Between Employers – As part of the COVID-19 plan, employers must coordinate with other employers at the same work location.
- Sample Employee COVID-19 Health Screening Questionnaire (Spanish) – Employers must screen each employee before each work day and shift.
- Notification Removal and Return to Work Flow Chart for Employees – This flow chart explains to employees when they need to notify their employer about COVID-19-related issues, when their employer must notify them about COVID-19 exposures in the workplace, and when their employer must remove employees from the workplace.
- Notification Removal and Return to Work Flow Chart for Employers – This flow chart explains the steps that employers must take when notified that an employee is COVID-19 positive, told by a licensed healthcare provider that they are suspected to have COVID-19 or is experiencing certain COVID-19 symptoms, or has been in close contact with a COVID-19 positive person in the workplace.
- Employee Training Presentation – Healthcare ETS – Employers must provide training to each employee (appropriate to their language and literacy level) on certain specified topics.
- Employee Training Presentation – Mini Respiratory Protection Program – Employers must also provide training on a new Mini Respirator program that applies generally when workers are not exposed to suspected or confirmed sources of COVID-19 but where respirator use could offer enhanced worker protection.