Anesthesia Coding Alert

Remember your responsibility to staff, not only patients.

In the ever-changing world of healthcare regulation during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has shared new guidance related to workplaces and COVID-19 – and it includes a look at mandatory requirements to come.

The basics: The new guidance document, “Protecting Workers: Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace,” was created to “inform employers and workers in most workplace settings outside of healthcare to help them identify risks of being exposed to and/or contracting COVID-19 at work and to help them determine appropriate control measures to implement,” according to the OSHA website.

OSHA’s guidance came in response to the “Executive Order on Protecting Worker Health and Safety” signed by President Biden on January 21, the day after his inauguration.

OSHA notes that its recommendations in the guidance are “advisory.” However, don’t be surprised if you see them turn mandatory, based on the executive order’s requirement that OSHA “consider whether any emergency temporary standards on COVID-19, including with respect to masks in the workplace, are necessary.”

“If OSHA moves forward with issuing an emergency temporary standard (ETS), we expect that many of the recommendations in this guidance will become part of the ETS,” say attorneys Mark Duvall, Jayni Lanham, and Deepti Gage with law firm Beveridge & Diamond in online analysis.

OSHA, similar to HIPAA, is in the business of protecting people’s health, data, and rights. This new release touches on several COVID-19 matters and ideas to inform staff about the dangers of the virus while ensuring the workplace is safe.

Focus on These Areas for Staff Safety

Consider asking yourself these OSHA-inspired questions as you plan on how to train staff, manage COVID-19 cases among employees, and communicate the protocols — and the dangers — of the virus:

Do you have a COVID-19 coordinator on staff?

• Have you assessed your organization’s risks on employees contracting the virus?
• What mitigation steps have you taken to ensure workers’ safety?
• Are your policies and procedures in line with federal health, privacy, and workplace standards?
• Do you have “reasonable accommodations” to protect older or disabled employees, who are at a higher risk of getting sick?
• Have you instituted a comprehensive training program that instructs employees on the most recent mandates related to masks, personal protective equipment (PPE), barriers, ventilation, cleaning, and disinfecting?
• Do you have screening and isolation policies in place for before, during, and after shifts?
• Are your protocols proactive, encouraging sick employees to stay home without fear of repercussions?
• Have you enabled an alert system that allows employees to know when a co-worker has come down with COVID-19 while ensuring the sick individual’s privacy and health data are protected?
• Is your IT enabled to track and report staff cases of COVID-19?
• Do you have a plan in place that promotes COVID-19 vaccination while not infringing on workers’ rights or choices to not get inoculated, too?

Resource: Review the OSHA guidance at www.osha.gov/coronavirus/safework.