The Compliance Divas Podcast
Our podcast covers current topics such as infection prevention and control, OSHA and HIPAA compliance for dentistry. We discuss the latest regulatory information, answer frequently asked questions and give suggestions for dental practices to make compliance easy and sustainable. The Compliance Divas are a trusted source for consistent, accurate information based upon current guidelines, standards, science, and recommendations.
The Compliance Divas Podcast
#91 CAL/OSHA's COVID-19 2023 Prevention Non-Emergency Regulations
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California Dental Professionals take note! There are new CAL/OSHA laws called "COVID-19 Prevention Non-Emergency Regulations". They were approved by the Office of Administrative Law is February 3, 2023 . The regulations will be in effect until February 3, 2025 and employers must comply. CAL/OSHA has a reputation for being aggressive when it come to enforcement of Occupational Safety and Health Standards!
COVID-19 Prevention Non-Emergency Regulations
https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/coronavirus/Non_Emergency_Regulations/
COVID-19 Non-Emergency Regulation What Employers Need to Know
https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/coronavirus/Non-Emergency-regs-summary.pdf
CDA-Required Notice of Potential Exposure to COVID-19
https://www.cda.org/Home/Resource-Library/Resources/category/exposure/required-notice-of-potential-exposure-to-covid-19
Welcome. I'm Leslie Cannon. I'm Mary Gavoni.
SPEAKER_01I'm Linda Harvey. I'm Olivia Juan, and together we are the Compliance Divas.
SPEAKER_02Welcome to the Compliance Divas Podcast. My name is Linda Harvey, and I will be your moderator for this special edition podcast. Cal OSHA has been hard at work during the COVID-19 pandemic to make sure employees are safe at work by requiring employers to address COVID-19 hazards. And now Cal OSHA has an important update that we'll be discussing today. As the Compliance Divas, we bring clarity and simplicity to compliance to help you navigate the regulatory world. Today's podcast and all of our podcast and resources can be found on your favorite podcast channel as well as on our website, thecompliancedevas.com. And we welcome your questions to support at thecompliancedivas.com. So thankfully, our diva leslie is our California expert. She's also an authorized by the U.S. Department of Labor as an OSHA outreach trainer. And thanks to Leslie's expertise and diligence in keeping up with rapidly changing OSHA regulations, our listeners will be able to better understand what's new and what they have to do to comply with the Cal OSHA regulations. Leslie, I understand the federal emergency temporary standard was issued by OSHA in response for COVID-19, and that standard expired. However, CalOSHA has adopted its own ETS. So can you tell us what's going on with it, what's new with that now in 2023, please?
SPEAKER_00Well, Linda, there's a lot going on. You know, the California Emergency Temporary Standard also expired, but it expired on February 3rd of this year, 2023. And the new COVID-19 prevention, what they call non-emergency regulations, took effect. So in the past, the CalOSHA ETS had had multiple updates. CalOSHA was very busy keeping up with CDC recommendations and public health orders. So since 2020, it had multiple updates, and they were based, of course, on science and data and community levels. And it's very important that employers in California comply with these new what they call non-emergency regulations. The California OSHA has a reputation for being very aggressive when it comes to occupational and safety and health standards. So it's important to pay close attention to what the new regulations are so you can be in compliance.
SPEAKER_02Leslie, it sounds like they have a lot to continue working on there in California. So we're glad to have your update today. Thank you. Mary, what else do you think California listeners would like to know from Leslie so they can be up to date on all these changes?
SPEAKER_03Oh, how much time do we have? Um I want to know as well what is the same and what is different for the new Cal OSHA COVID-19 non-emergency regulation.
SPEAKER_00Oh boy, you know, Mary, you hit the nail on the head because there's just so many things that uh actually have stayed the same, but there's several things that have changed as well. And we want to make sure that employers take some time to take a look at the show notes that we have because that gives us uh information on all those changes of what they need to do in order to be in compliance with the new regulations. Well, Mary, there have been many changes to regulations, and the regulations include new requirements and some maintain some of the other older requirements, but with added flexibility. One thing that's most notable about the new regulations is that OSHAD now considers COVID-19 a workplace hazard. So again, the new uh regulations will be in effect for two years, and they actually help employers provide consistent protection to workers and flexibility to respond to future changes and any guidance that might be issued by California Public Department Public Health Department. And one of the things that uh is the same is that employers still have to maintain a written COVID-19 plan. And it's either going to be a separate plan or it can be part of what's called an injury and illness prevention plan. Good news for California dentists, the California Dental Association has updated the COVID addendum to the injury and illness prevention plan, and anyone can access it. You don't need to be a member of CDA in order to access any of their COVID-19 resources. Another point I want to make is that CalOSHA just posted on actually Sunday, Sunday, the uh the 5th of February, a model plan for businesses, for all businesses. Now, us in dentistry, typically we have an OSHA manual and we've got a section on how to prevent accidents. And California and many other states call that an injury and illness prevention plan. So uh this non-emergency regulation actually has new provisions for employers that are related to outbreaks, base coverings, and requirements related to ventilation that makes it more simple to understand. Uh, one other thing I might point out is that employers still have to provide face coverings and ensure that they're warned by employees when California Public Health Department's orders are in place. And currently, there's still a requirement for everyone in healthcare settings in California to wear a face covering. The requirements, by the way, related to ventilation being more simplified, there's actually a section in the frequently asked questions part of the uh regulations where they identify what parts of the ventilation uh requirements that you'll need to include in your plan. There's also a couple other things to talk about, Mary. Um, it's actually that uh tracking COVID cases is important too. Remember that employees still need to be tracked if they get infected with COVID. Employers have to do that. They have to notify affected employees, they have to make COVID testing available at no charge and during paid time for employees, and they still have to exclude COVID-19 places from the COVID-19 cases from the workplace until individuals are no longer an infection risk. So uh again, just to recap everything I said, employers still need to continue to maintain written COVID-19 plans or create one if they don't have one because OSHA considers COVID-19 now a workplace hazard.
SPEAKER_02Wow, thank you, Leslie. It sounds like there's a lot still to be done in California. And I think our California listeners will need to listen to this podcast multiple times in order to soak up all that information. There's so much information. Olivia, I'm sure there's a few other things that we need to delve into with Leslie. What are your thoughts?
SPEAKER_01I was wondering, Leslie, what does Cal OSHA consider as close contact?
SPEAKER_00CalOSHA has utilized that term close contact in multiple different ways in the past because they changed that based on CDC's guidance. Currently, close contact uh is as follows. They define it as if you're in an indoor spaces of 400,000 or fewer cubic feet per floor, a close contact is defined as sharing the same indoor space as a COVID-19 case for a cumulative of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period during a uh COVID-19 case's infectious period. So we remember hearing about the cumulative of 15 minutes, it's either all at one time or five minutes here, five minutes there, five minutes at another time during a 24-hour period. Now, um, when it comes to a larger indoor space, and really dental offices don't generally run over 400,000 cubic feet per floor. But if they did, if they were in a large group, a close contact is defined as being within six feet of a COVID-19 case for a cumulative period of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period. And something else to keep in mind with this, Olivia, is that in dental offices we have either suites or treatment rooms, waiting areas, break areas, eating areas. Uh, sometimes there are restrooms with more than one stall. Any of those places are still considered to be distinct indoor air spaces. They are floor-to-ceiling walls, so we have to consider those to be within our close contact uh definition of being in the room with someone for a cumulative of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period.
SPEAKER_01That's interesting how they lay that information out. Leslie, can you tell us about employee notification of a potential exposure to COVID-19 at a work site?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. You know, Olivia, it's important that employers in California investigate and respond to COVID cases in the workplace. And that includes determining when the COVID case was last in the workplace and if possible, the date of testing, where they have the positive test and the onset of symptoms, and then determining which employees may have been exposed to that COVID-19 case through close contact. And then the most important thing is providing written notification to all employees who were at the work site at the same time as the COVID-19 case during that infectious period. They have to do that notification within one business day.
SPEAKER_02Wow, thank you, Leslie. One business day. That's pretty tough requirement there. So I'm glad that you're able to lay this out so succinctly for our California listeners. I'm all about the paperwork, Leslie. I think you can have the best laid plan in effect as far as carrying out processes, but we all know that regulators want to know, want to see your record keeping and your logs. So can you outline a few things that might our listeners or California listeners might need in this area, Leslie?
SPEAKER_00Well, another thing that has changed with the new non-emergency regulations is that um all documentation must be maintained for two years. But when it comes to the record keeping forms and the notification forms, those logs and record keeping forms have to be maintained for three years. And of course, uh federal OSIS says that medical record keeping forms need to be maintained by the employer, duration of employment plus 30 years. So I think the big message here, Linda, is hang on to that documentation and then uh as well as keep it in a confidential and private file for each employee.
SPEAKER_03And um, Leslie, what about reporting of COVID cases? Are they still reportable to a public health department? Are they reportable to CalOSHA?
SPEAKER_00Well, employers have to remember that you still have to report employee deaths, serious ill injuries, and serious occupational illnesses to CalOSHA consistent with the existing regulations. So when it comes to outbreaks, we need to make sure that we understand what the definition of an outbreak is. So, uh, Mary, uh, a major outbreak is now reportable to CalOSHA, and a major outbreak is still defined as 20 or more employee cases in an exposed group within 14 days. Employers are no longer required to report outbreaks of three or more cases to their local health department.
SPEAKER_01So, Leslie, I think our listeners in California would like to zero in on dental practices. So, have any of the dentists in California been cited for COVID violations?
SPEAKER_00My goodness, uh I actually have some uh firsthand experience. I know a dentist who had an issue with OSHA back in uh it was early in August of 2020, where he had a serious violation issued. He had a penalty of $3,150. And the reason why was he failed to effectively implement and maintain an injury and illness prevention program. And that's something we talked about at the beginning of the podcast, how important those written plans are. He also did not conduct an investigation to determine the facts surrounding incidents and identify close contacts that may have been exposed and implement corrective action when he had two employees who became infected with COVID-19 right around July of 2020. So again, remember that employers need to uh pay close attention to what OSHA is telling them, and they may be able to avoid fines and penalties. There was another case that occurred, and I haven't been able to read the actual citation on this one. It was with an orthodontic practice where they suffered a $335 penalty. Not a lot of money, but you know, sometimes there's a lot of paperwork and red tape surrounding a violation that an employer has to go through. And it certainly is time consuming, and time is uh, of course, money when it comes to a busy orthodontic practice.
SPEAKER_02Leslie, thanks for sharing that information in particular about California dentists, because throughout the pandemic, we've all seen and read news articles about how safe dentistry was. And I think for the most part, we did a great job in dentistry. However, it's not impossible for COVID to be spread in a dental practice. It stresses the need to still use N95 respirator masks, which I know was not our specific talk today. Because Leslie, I just want to share that when I mentioned the possibility of that occurring in a dental practice during my trainings, typically everybody rolls their eyes at me. They don't think it can happen. So thank you for pointing out that we still need to be vigilant no matter which state you're in, California or elsewhere.
SPEAKER_00Linda, I just want to add one more note. The California Dental Association has really hit the ball out of the park when it comes to providing those resources to all individuals who are seeking COVID-19 information, not just restricting it to members only. And one of the notifications that is important, as I mentioned, the notice of potential exposure to a communicable disease, which uh COVID-19 is considered that, they actually have a sample poster that you can use to post at your practice and provides the information about how long, which is 15 days. So I would encourage our listeners in California to check out CDA. Even if you're not a member, go to CDA.org and check out some of those resources. Or actually an easier link, just go to the compliance divas website. We're going to have uh that link listed in our on our website and the resources and on the show notes for this podcast. And Linda, I think that's uh the most up-to-date information from California and Cal OSHA that I can offer.
SPEAKER_02Wonderful, Leslie. Thank you for bringing this information to our California listeners today. As the Compliance Divas, we bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating the regulatory world to keep you on course. Please subscribe to the Compliance Divas podcast through your favorite podcast channel or on our website, thecompliancedeivas.com. Any of the resources that we mentioned today will be on our website and in today's show notes. And we always welcome your questions to support at thecompliancedivas.com.