Dental professionals, especially hygienists, will be familiar with the acronym APIE in their approach to clinical care. APIE stands for Assess, Plan, Implement and Evaluate. When implementing a Health and Safety Program in your office, using this method will assist your office in meeting the requirements of the Ministry of Labour.
Assess- Perform a risk assessment of the hazards that may be present in your office. This includes assessing the risks of accidents or injuries, workplace violence as well as hazardous materials. The assessment should capture any existing possible risks to the health and safety of your employees, as well as identify any potential risks.
Plan – Create a plan on how to prevent accidents and injuries in the workplace. The plan should include an evacuation procedures and emergency codes such as code red for fire, code blue for cardiac event, code white for violent patient and code green for environmental disaster. A floor plan should be posted to identify the escape route and all staff should be aware of how to safely evacuate the patients and themselves should an emergency occur in the office. An important part of planning should include pandemic planning and what measures your office will take should a pandemic, like SARS, occur. Many health care professionals believe that a pandemic is inevitable and your office needs to be prepared.
Implement – Once the plan is complete, steps must be taken to implement the health and safety program. These steps will include practicing the evacuation procedure on an annual basis. Training all employees on the safety procedures in the office and implementing an orientation process for new employees. If you have temporary staff who work in your office on occasion, you must also take them through an orientation process to protect their safety. Your office should have an anti-bullying and anti-harassment policy as part of your Employee Policies Manual. Health and Safety should be a continuous agenda item at all monthly staff meetings.
Evaluate – – Your office should conduct an evaluation that involves all of the your staff, to ensure that your Health and Safety program is effective in protecting your employees and patients. The policies in place must be re-evaluated and updated annually.
The Ministry of Labour takes workplace health and safety very seriously and is committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace for all employees. Your health and safety program must go far beyond having up to date WHMIS program and MSDS sheets for products. Implementing a Health and Safety program is a continuous process that needs to be reassessed and possibly revised every year. When new team members join your practice, it is very important that the Health and Safety Representative (HSR) at your office, or someone from the Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) takes the new employee through the orientation process and maintains a checklist to identify what the new employee has been trained on. Workplace Health and Safety is everyone’s business. All dental offices with 5 more or employees must have an Internal Responsibility System to ensure the safety of employees. For further information, please feel free to contact me at sandie@dentalofficeconsulting.com.
