TOSHA Issues Emergency Temporary Rule for COVID-19 in Healthcare

Effective date is August 24, 2021
Friday, August 27, 2021 | 10:06am

On June 21, 2021, Federal OSHA promulgated an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 in the Healthcare industry. When this rule was issued, Federal OSHA required that state programs, such as Tennessee, adopt this ETS or promulgate their own rule.

Tennessee OSHA has completed the process of promulgating an emergency temporary rule with an effective date of 8/24/2021.

You may view the rule filing here: https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/rules_filings/08-23-21.pdf

The content of the rule is very similar to, but no more restrictive, than the rule published by Federal OSHA. Given the similarity of the rule to the ETS, OSHA resources such as the model plan, checklists, etc. posted at https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/ets would be suitable to comply with the emergency temporary rule.

This rule is applicable to the healthcare industry and related support services only.

Important dates to note in the rule, employers must be in compliance with all requirements of the rule by September 7, 2021, except 0800-01-12-.09 (Physical Barriers), 0800-01-12-.11 (Ventilation), and 0800-01-12-.14 (Training).

The employer has until September 22, 2021, to comply with 0800-01-12-.09, 0800-01-12-.11, and 0800-01-12-.14.