Is Compliance Important to Your Practice?

Safety is accomplished primarily through Engineering Controls, Administrative Controls, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Engineering Controls are most often associated with items such as radiology barriers or large animal handling equipment, and PPE is commonplace with items such as gloves, towel restraints, and hearing protection.

Administrative Controls are tools that are often overlooked. Veterinarians and practice managers struggle to find time to create and maintain safety policies, employee training, incident reports, and other compliance documentation. However, these documents are essential to building a culture of safety within your organization.

Here are five things that will help you maintain compliance and build a culture of safety:

1. Ensure Leadership Communication and Buy-In

    · If owners, veterinarians, and managers do not think safety is important, staff members will not either.

2. Provide Training and Documentation to All Staff Members

  · Make documents such as policies, training, and safety data sheets easily accessible, require them to be reviewed during on-boarding, and provide regular refresher training.

3. Create a Safety Committee to Identify Hazards and Maintain PPE

  · Continually improve the safety of your operations, monitor the status of your PPE (including regular checks of radiology safety shielding), and budget to fix identified hazards.

4. Encourage Staff Members to Communicate Concerns

  · Empower your staff to co-lead your safety culture. If concerns are raised, address them quickly.

5. Use Incident Reporting as an Opportunity to Improve Operational Practices

  · Employees should feel safe to report an incident. Make it easy to report an incident and evaluate each incident for what safety measures could help prevent recurrence. Ask employees for their ideas rather than trying to find fault.

When a staff member thinks about compliance in relation to your facility, you want them to know that their health is always a top priority. What message are you sending to your staff? Make it a goal this year to build a reputation of high-quality patient care and create a culture focused on operating a compliant facility.