Page 20 - Occupational Health & Safety, July/August 2019

LOCKOUT/TAGOUT
in OSHA violations, or worse, catastrophic incidents, injuries, and OSHA penalties. This can jeopardize patient care if critical machin- ery and equipment is down because of incident investigation.
However, lack of overall awareness of lockout obligations under OSHA regulations, as well as an ever-changing regulatory environ- ment under The Joint Commission, pose a unique challenge for health care facilities. Traditionally, fewer people participate in lock- out procedures in an institutional setting, such as hospitals, mean- ing there may be fewer qualified experts, less resource training, less frequent auditing, and more limited procedures for the staff to follow.
Although every facility has its own unique set of LOTO issues, it is worth examining how one leading medical facility strength- ened its safety program by raising awareness of LOTO internally and making it that much easier for employees to perform safety procedures.
How UC San Diego Health Implemented
LOTO Procedures to Improve Worker Safety
UC San Diego Health, the only academic hospital in San Diego, is one of the premier health care providers in the United States and is nationally ranked in six adult medical and surgical specialties by U.S. News & World Report. With more than 1,500 doctors and sci- entists who are published experts in the field, UC San Diego Health provides unparalleled patient care.
As a leading health advocate, the hospital chose to proactively evaluate the state of its LOTO programs at its Hillcrest and La Jolla facilities to ensure the safety of its workers and prevent incidents that could jeopardize patient care. UC San Diego Health’s primary goal was to prevent lockout-related incidents due to the unexpected re- lease of hazardous energy while workers maintain and service ma- chinery and equipment. As a secondary goal, the hospital was in- terested in assessing the workplace to provide a more efficient work environment that would not decrease the productivity of its workers.
In addition to the UC San Diego Health’s primary goals, lockout equipment deployment strategies were assessed and created to pro- vide added efficiency to the tasks performed by authorized person- nel simply by improving access to the lockout equipment.
Implementing Safety Procedures and
Efficiencies at UC San Diego Health:
■ Raising safety awareness. All workers authorized to service or repair equipment must now protect themselves and their co-work- ers by applying lockout before they begin to work on machinery, based on regulations outlined in the 1910.147 OSHA standard.2 This means that workers must first understand the applicable safe- ty requirements and guidelines and then act to protect themselves and their colleagues.
To educate workers, Gena Hedger, a lockout sales manager and solutions provider for The Master Lock Company, conducted
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Circle 38 on card.