I take pride in the fact that me and my team will tell clients WHAT THEY NEED TO HEAR rather than what they would like to hear. We are all about making sure their workers and business have the most safe work place possible. The vast majority appreciate this and it’s why SAFTENG has thrived all these years. But it really pisses me off when my smaller clients contact me with some sales pitch from one of the big consulting companies or safety vendors asking if the info is accurate. This week I had a client receive information that they were required to have a 1st Aid team since they were more than 5 minutes from a hospital.
I had already established they did not need this program, training, nor the BBP program after an incident in which they had an exposure event because of the BBP program failures (awareness, training, program, PPE, etc). The employee received substandard care and no one called 911 because “we thought we had this under control”.
Using OSHA’s guidance on the 3-4 minute rule, I convinced management tommeet with the local FD and ask about response times and to forge a relationship with their Community Responders. We did and the FD said they can have a paramedic on site in less than 2 minutes and there are redundant capabilities (ALS unit and Engine Co.’s have medics and EMTs). These are trained professionals who render care daily, NOT once in a lifetime. The business agreed this was the best pmath from safety and costs perspectives. The company continues to offer 1st Aid/CPR training for their employees as many are coaches in the community and had come to rely on the company providing this training for free and while they were at work. But we trained everyone that it was NO LONGER their responsibility to render care – but to call 911. If they wished to render care leading to a potential exposure they did so as a “good
samaritan”.
This angered their 1st aid training provider who was also the company that maintained their supplies, the BBP program, and the vaccination. When the client contacted them about this change they claimed that the firehouse literally around the corner, with a response time of 2 minutes was not “adequate care” and thus 1910.151 requires the business to maintain a first aid team. When asked to provide info supporting their position they merely provided 1910.151(b). When the client pushed back and explained what I had said and done, they claimed I was trying to generate business for my company. Luckily the client knew better, after all SAFTENG, does not provide any of these services. When provided the LOI explaining how a business would not need a first aid team, this firm claimed the LOI was not accurate.