OSHA Grouchies

I don’t like OSHA. I don’t particularly mind what it stands for, but I don’t like the headache it represents. Ever since my former employee in charge of OSHA compliance left in January, poor OSHA just sat on the shelf, just waiting for a disaster to happen. Since I cannot possibly take on any more responsibilities, I decided to designate Kim to be the new OSHA Czar. But like it or not, I knew I would not only have to get training for Kim, but I would also have to train myself at some point. I will not tolerate being the victim of misinterpretation, so today found Kim and me heading down to Nashville to an OSHA seminar. I figure we’ll all be better off if both Kim and I are armed with the same information from the same source.

It was actually pretty interesting (but downright frightening) to hear all the things that could potentially make our practice go belly up. One accidental needle stick to a healthcare employee could potentially cost an employer up to $14,000 in liability. Did you know that we have to offer that employee drug treatment to treat potential bloodborne diseases within two hours of being stuck? And those drugs can cost up to $500 per day for a four-week treatment regimen? Ouch. That kind of Math hurts.

Unfortunately, I’m not the type of person who can just dump the responsibility on another employee, so here I am again—up to my ears in Stuff To Do…especially with school starting on Monday. So yes, I’ll help beef up our OSHA compliance. But I won’t like it. It makes me feel grouchy. Really grouchy.

Sigh.