Performing a self-audit is crucial to your acute care facility’s success! This helps you avoid hefty OSHA fines and ensure you have a stress-free year. But before you dive right in, it’s important to make sure you know what you actually need to check for! Educating yourself and other staff that manage compliance is the most important ‘first step.’ Our respiratory compliance experts have gathered the highlights to get you started.
There are three main areas to focus on when reevaluating your Respiratory Protection Program:
1. WRITTEN RESPIRATORY PROTECTION PROGRAM
Your OSHA-required written program explains how you will maintain respiratory compliance. It’s the playbook your staff will go by when selecting respirators, completing medical evaluations, and more.
If you need help with your written plan or want a spot to check your current program, our respiratory protection consultants can help! Here are the main elements of the written respiratory protection program to get your checklist started:
Respiratory Selection
Medical Evaluations
Use of Respirators
Maintenance and Care
Assuring Adequate Air Quality
Training and Fit Testing
Ensuring Program Quality
2. MEDICAL EVALUATIONS
When evaluating your Respiratory Protection Program, make sure you have a streamlined process for conducting medical evaluations and storing all records. Many people think medical evaluations are just to clear staff for the respirator fit test. But it’s actually to clear your staff to wear a respirator. Certain medical conditions pose a danger to staff if they wear a respirator ─ lung diseases (asthma or emphysema), vision problems, and claustrophobia can prevent an employee from using a respirator.
Medical evaluations were once a lengthy process dependent on a fax machine. With Mobile Heath’s online medical evaluations, you get real-time review by our PLHCPs and instant results to your Client Portal. You simply send employees a link, and they complete the evaluation in minutes.
Conducting medical evaluations and correctly recording results is what OSHA looks for, and our HIPAA-compliant technology does both!
3. RESPIRATOR FIT TESTS
Pre-employment and annual respirator fit tests are the final piece of the puzzle. Just like medical evaluations, you need to make sure your facility is conducting and recording these tests according to OSHA standards. If you’re behind on fit testing and need a better process, here are a few ways your acute care facility can accomplish respirator fit testing more efficiently:
1. Conduct fit testing yourself: The Mobile Health Fit Kit™ leverages both our fit testing expertise and reporting technology. If you need to streamline an in-house program, chat with one of our experts.
2. Send employees to a clinic: Mobile Health has the largest network of clinic locations with next-day appointments. Results will come directly to your Client Portal (the same portal with your medical evaluation results if you choose to bundle).
3. Send a team to your facility: For some acute care facilities, there are too many moving pieces for in-house or in-clinic fit testing. This is where Mobile Health’s on-site fit testing teams come in! Our 24/7 teams come with everything needed to perform fit testing and record results.
READY TO AUDIT YOURSELF?
We hope this overview has equipped you with the tools to successfully evaluate your program and streamline for the future! If you want more in-depth advice or want us to help you perform your self-audit, reach out to our respiratory protection experts.
