Floors are probably not something that you spend a lot of time pondering. They serve a purpose, provide solid ground and support, and are often overlooked as a functioning component of a facility. However, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) is poised to finalize their Slip, Trips, & Falls Rules this August. We’ve been preparing for these changes, since the announcement of Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on May 18th, 2016 and here’s where we stand.
Not all floors are created equal, and OSHA requires you to pay attention. From food services areas to stairs, operation rooms, and parking garages, you’ll have to spend a little more time looking down. It is important to create a full walkway audit program, and not just a single survey, to accommodate for the variety of floors your healthcare facility encompasses. Even if the single survey qualifies as a check off towards accreditation. Proper preparation prevents poor performance, or in this case potential injury and litigation.
Have multiple people conduct the audit. It is important to have multiple sets of eyes on your walkways. While you can hire a certified walkway auditor, and we always recommend bringing in the experts, they typically only visit annually. This leaves large gaps in time and increased risk for overlooking a potential hazard. We suggest having different people do walkway audits throughout the year. This raises awareness of slips, trips, and fall hazards. It also provides a different perspective on the state of your facility and provides continual feedback giving you the chance to take preventative measures.
EoScene’s online compliance tool helps healthcare facilities take walkway audits to a new level. Scheduling walkway audits to various staff members, over the course of time is easy to do with EoScene’s platform. EoScene also makes it easy to report on problem areas, as well as corrective action taken, all from one dashboard.
