Each year the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issues hundreds of citations to employers in the healthcare industry. While medical centers, doctors' offices, and clinics must all comply with a significant number of standards, the citations issued to hospitals remain relatively constant from year to year.

Not surprisingly, maintaining compliance with the Blood Borne Pathogens (BBP) standard presents a continuing challenge. Citations under the BBP standard are the most frequently cited in this industry. The other standards most frequently cited usually fall under Hazard Communication requirements. This past year was no different.

Your Main Areas Of Concern

For hospitals and medical centers, the most frequently cited standards (after BBP compliance) during the last half of 2011 were:

1. failure to train under the BBP standard;
2. failure to implement and maintain an Exposure Control Plan under the BBP standard;
3. failure to engineer out hazards/ensure hand washing under BBP standard;
4. poor housekeeping under the BBP standard;
5. failure to use personal protective equipment under the BBP standard;
6. failure to keep BBP training records and a Sharps Injury Log...

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