Required Plans
Please note: All of these plans need to be configured for your specific office in order to be effective. Take out what doesn’t apply to your office and add whatever additional information you need to add. If you need specific advice, ask your attorney to check it over or many malpractice companies have lawyers on staff to answer questions like that.
- Here’s a sample Respiratory Protection Program. It’s in Word so you can change it for your office.
- Here’s a sample COVID plan. I’d still make sure I’d have one of these, because it also shows general respiratory protection. Just make sure that you’re doing everything the plan says you’re doing!
- This model Hazard Communication Plan is taken directly from OSHA, includes the new Hazard Communication information, and it’s edited to apply only to dentistry. Fill it out and place it with your OSHA materials. Also, print out this summary of labels/SDS forms/pictograms and place it with the Hazard Communication Plan.
- Exposure Control Plan for Dentistry ONLY: This Exposure Control Plan is intended to serve as an employer guide to the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens standard. (We have the Respiratory protection plan to tell us how to protect ourselves from respiratory illnesses). The standard requires a current exposure control plan. This model is taken from OSHA, but edited to apply only to dentistry.
- Most dental offices are at low risk for TB transmission. In the past, we were required to perform an annual facility TB Risk Assessment. However, they discovered that it was a better idea to do individual TB risk assessments, because even in a high risk facility, some of the employees were not high risk and didn’t need annual testing. (Example: a cook in a hospital kitchen with no patient contact is not at risk for TB exposure at work.) Here is the full 2005 TB Standard.
- I would still have the facility risk assessment on file, just to be safe. Here is a written TB program, (already filled out), which includes personal TB risk assessments. Fill in your community’s correct TB numbers, make any other changes as needed, put it in your notebook, and perform personal risk assessments one time (it’s in a Word format so you can make changes). Some facilities may need to then perform personal risk assessments in the future for higher risk individuals who may need annual testing.
- Here is a copy of the 2019 standard that updates the 2005 requirements for testing health care workers.
- Some states require a needle safety plan to explain how a practice handles sharps. You can use this plan as a sample to design a program specific to your office: click here to print
- Here is an Emergency plan for your office that you can configure for your office. This is derived from several different sources (ADA and various law enforcement sources) and may include a lot more info than you want, so make sure you take out stuff that you don’t do/don’t want to use.