AHA requests more time for hospitals navigating OSHA’s COVID-19 emergency temporary standards

AHA today urged the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to delay by six months its compliance dates for the recently announced COVID-19 Health Care Emergency Temporary Standard, thus giving hospitals and health systems ample time to implement the policy’s many new requirements.

“Changes in hospital policies and procedures are not simply a matter of changing words on paper; they require careful analysis and planning, the acquisition of needed materials and tools, and the retraining of personnel. For organizations that are already busy caring for their communities’ ill and injured, it will take time to accomplish all of these required changes,” AHA wrote. AHA also requested that OSHA extend the comment deadline for an additional 30 days, in order to ensure substantive and data-informed comments.