The links below for the Federal OSHA ETS are very important, as are the NC Department of Labor webinars!
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The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has determined that employee exposure to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19) presents a “grave danger to workers in all healthcare settings in the US where people with COVID-19 are reasonably expected to be present” and has issued Occupational Exposure to COVID-19; Emergency Temporary Standard.
The ETS also requires all providers with COVID-19 outbreaks to utilize N95 respirator masks when providing care to infected residents. The Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that was disseminated to providers last year and this year by the state, the NCSLA, and the NCALA provided 3-ply masks. Therefore, providers that have outbreaks and need N95 masks can obtain them via the North Carolina Healthcare Partners Supply Chain process, and information about this process can be found here.
We were just recently made aware of this requirement and we recognize the extremely tight timeline for completing this plan, and so we want to provide you with the following helpful resources:
