Like other healthcare workers, dental professionals can come in contact with workplace hazards that can cause illness or injury to themselves or patients. Proper employee training is essential for creating a safe workspace and ensuring each worker understands their unique role in the event of emergencies or adverse situations. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) training helps facilities identify these hazards and outline the necessary steps to prevent negative outcomes or minimize the impact. Meeting training requirements can help you avoid OSHA fines or violations while strengthening patient and worker relationships.
Here, you can find everything you need to know about OSHA training for dental offices, including how to remain compliant and where to access comprehensive solutions that can keep you up-to-date on the most current regulations and recommendations.
Addressing the Need for Dental OSHA Training
OSHA aims to ensure the safety of patients and workers in the workplace by identifying and minimizing the spread of viruses, illnesses, and other threats that can present in healthcare settings. Dental professionals are consistently at risk for exposure to various workplace hazards, including those from bloodborne pathogens, chemical agents, ergonomic hazards, workplace violence, viruses, pharmaceuticals, noise, human factors, and other risks. Although there are no specific standards for dentistry, OSHA outlines the particular standards for biological, physical, environmental, psychological, and chemical exposures dental professionals could face in general industry (Dentistry).
OSHA provides information regarding safety actions and plans and details personal protective equipment for dental professionals. Training also addresses work-setting violence, how to work with chemical agents, and combatting psychological hazards to prevent the workplace from becoming a hostile environment.
Reaching OSHA Compliance
Creating a successful dental practice involves staying up-to-date with the latest OSHA safety and response information. Administering the proper training is essential for reaching OSHA compliance. Dental offices can perform the following to maintain compliance:
- Train employees: Regular training can ensure you stay on track with new rules and regulations. Regulated training can also help you maintain consistent steps for onboarding and training new hires. To increase workplace safety, you should administer training to new hires as soon as possible after they start their position. All employees, including full-time and part-time workers, need refresher training to ensure you maintain the most current practices and recommendations. Implementing annual training sessions can help you meet these requirements.
- Provide the right materials: Every worker at your facility must receive the proper training, from custodians to dental assistants. OSHA training materials cover critical information, like industrial hygiene, emergency action plans, and slip prevention. Provide this information as soon as possible as working conditions change and create new hazards.
- Document OSHA training: You must be able to show that your facility has completed the necessary training. OSHA has some requirements for documenting training, including needing information such as trainer names, trainer qualifications, training content, attendee’s name and office position, and the training date (Training). Ensure each employee can access their training records and maintain the documentation for as long as necessary.
- Understand the consequences of lacking compliance: Although remaining OSHA-compliant helps foster a safe workplace, there are other reasons you must maintain compliance. Failing to adhere to OSHA standards could result in fines or civil or criminal penalties (SEC. 17). Healthcare professionals can face ethical violation charges that could lead to the loss of their license without the proper training.
- Recognize the most common violations: Identifying the most common violations in dentistry can allow you to implement additional regulations or rules to prevent mistakes. Common dental violations include failing to execute a Hazard Communication Plan, maintain an exposure control plan, train employees and document training, supply appropriate Personal Protective Equipment, or provide safety data sheets (Frequently). Other violations include lacking engineering controls, mislabeling or neglecting to label chemicals, and lacking a proper eyewash station.
Maintaining OSHA Compliance for Your Practice
Dental professionals can quickly determine if they meet the latest regulations by acquiring an OSHA compliance management solution. This empowers facilities to create a safe workplace, resolve safety issues, and maintain an educated staff that understands the importance of maintaining OSHA compliance.
Rectangle Health offers compliance opportunities and free OSHA assessments so you can evaluate your current measures and identify areas where you can improve. These assessments cover information regarding compliance managers, self-assessments, state-specific requirements, emergency plans, and more. This solution can improve facilities by identifying gaps and resolving safety issues while meeting requirements regarding the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard and the Hazard Communication Standard.
Our compliance solution also empowers dental offices to stay ahead of the constantly changing recommendations and developments in the industry. This information allows offices to prepare for audits if an inspector unexpectedly visits. These visits often consist of document and site inspections to ensure you have all staff training documents, up-to-date safety data sheets, clearly designated exits, working smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, and more. With our management solution, you access comprehensive checklists and assessments to remove the guesswork of compliance.
Why Rectangle Health?
Rectangle Health aims to serve the healthcare industry by addressing the ever-evolving needs in these settings. We’ve been working since 1993 to provide technology solutions that empower facilities to create safe workspaces and maintain compliance.
We believe the simpler the solution, the better. Our solutions integrate seamlessly with daily workflows to improve and organize your management processes. We believe it is an honor to serve those who help us, especially in the healthcare industry. Our team wants providers to focus fully on providing quality care to improve patient outcomes, which is why we work to develop comprehensive solutions to empower many facilities.
Our cutting-edge technology acts as a bridge between providers and patients, improving the overall office experience. As a premier financial technology company, we have the tools and resources to meet your compliance training needs.
Schedule a Demo of OSHA Training for Dental Offices
Reaching OSHA compliance takes work, but investing in the proper solutions ultimately aids patients and workers in the healthcare industry. At Rectangle Health, you can find technology solutions to increase office efficiency and boost revenue. We’re committed to meeting your broad, unique needs through innovative technology that becomes an extension of your practice.
The team at Rectangle Health makes it easy to access training-specific materials and OSHA assessments so you can quickly uncover weak spots in your protocols while enhancing workplace safety. Request a demo of our solution to learn how we can help you maintain compliance and continue delivering quality care.
