News — osha

Each year there are approximately 384,000 sharps related injuries to health care workers. That amounts to about 1,000 injuries per day at an average cost of about $3042 per victim. $1 Billion is spent annually on lab fees, testing, counseling, and post exposure follow ups from sharps related injuries. That doesn’t include the emotional fallout associated with the injury. The anxiety, fear and the "what ifs" can be debilitating for some! With that being said, there is one tried and true way to protect yourself and prevent sharps injuries in the Dental Practice. That is by wearing utility gloves whenever...

No More State Board Rule for COVID-19 Precautions: Now What Do We Do?

On 06/18/2021 the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners (TSBDE) met and agreed to allow the COVID-19 Rule (officially 22 TAC 108.7(16)) expire with no replacement and the suggestion that dentists in Texas look to the CDC for continued guidance. This rule required patient screening, twice daily employee screening, use of N95/KN95 (or substantial equivalent), and so on.

A couple of weeks prior, however, OSHA announced the Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to address COVID-19 safety in healthcare settings. The ETS being a Standard has the effect of law and is enforceable as such. We will explore the CDC Guidelines in a moment, but first, let us discuss the ETS.

What do you do with your clinic laundry? What should you be doing? Read the following scenario while you think about it: It’s the end of a busy and productive day at the office. So busy that you’ve got to rush to pick up your child from daycare. The first thing your boy does is run straight to you embraces you in a giant hug. So sweet right? That depends. Did you take off your cloth lab jacket BEFORE you left the office? If not, then you’ve just exposed your child to patient “ick”. Gross! That’s not something you want...

• The terminology around masks and respirators is the cause of a lot of confusion. You use N-95 masks, which you call “masks”. The N-95 mask is classified by OSHA as Face Filtering Respirators (FFR). As such, N-95 respirator masks are subject to the requirements OSHA’s Respiratory Protection standard (1910.134).