Achieving OSHA Sharps Safety Compliance in Non-Hospital Settings

Due to shifts in healthcare, more than 60% of healthcare workers are employed in non-hospital settings, and more than half of these facilities are in violation of OSHA law. With non-hospital settings, such as private doctors’ offices and urgent care clinics, it is difficult to document what is going on, making the issue of enforcement much more challenging to address. According to Pamela Dembski Hart, CHSP, it seems that noncompliance is most commonly due to a misconception of the law. Medical practitioners in non-hospital settings are not aware of the annual training directives, nor are they aware of safety device requirements and the proper way to evaluate them. She adds that people believe safety engineered devices and training sessions are costly when in fact worker injuries, lost work days and OSHA violations are far more expensive. To learn more about OSHA laws in non-hospital settings and how to abide by them, click here.