By Travis Halsted, ARM, COSS, Loss Control Consultant

While writing this article, I took a few moments to reflect on the obstacles that the COVID-19 pandemic has provided for our policyholders. 2020 has provided us with one of the most challenging health exposures that most companies will ever face. Words such as social distancing, masks, virus, shutdown and stay at home will never have the same meanings for our country. I have spoken with many of you and have heard how this has affected you on a profound personal and business level. These have been trying times, but I am very pleased that this article will be reaching a much larger percentage of our policyholders than in the last couple of months. I can speak for the entire Loss Control Department when I say that we are thrilled to start policyholder visits again. With the Governor’s last order, employers are faced with several new COVID-19 requirements. These requirements cover topics that include training, screening, facility controls and exposures. One of the major parts of the COVID-19 back to work plan is the development and implementation of a COVID-19 Response Plan and screening protocol. As each of the new requirements can lead to more questions than answers, MTMIC has developed a Best Practices Manual and back to work checklist to assist you with meeting the requirements. The MTMIC Portal has these documents and several other COVID-19 related items available for your use. The next few sections are topics that are covered within the new requirements. 

Training

Whether your employees remained working during the stay at home order, or if they are just returning, employees must be trained on several different aspects of COVID-19. The items that are required to be trained on include; routes of entry of COVID-19, the distances that the virus can travel and the time that it remains viable in the air and on surfaces, symptoms of COVID-19, the steps that workers must take to notify you of any symptoms of COVID-19, rules that the worker must follow in order to prevent exposure to and spread of the virus, the use of personal protective equipment, new controls (cleaning of workstations, barriers, disinfectant use), any changes to lunch/shift schedules and hygiene etiquette. This training should also include a clear and detailed overview of what you are doing to protect them via the screening protocol and COVID-19 response plan. I highly recommend that you document, with employee signatures, any training that you complete. 

Screening

One of the most important ways to prevent potentially exposing employees to COVID-19 is through thorough screening. One of the requirements of employees returning to work is that you screen your employees and visitors for a high temperature, using a no touch thermometer, and ask some questions about items that could be symptoms of COVID-19. Sample visitor and employee screening questionnaires can be found on page 24 and 25 of the MTMIC Best Practices Manual. The screening process should also include steps to take if a person answers yes to any symptom questions and/or shows a high temperature. Potential steps that you can take can be found on page 19 of the MTMIC Best Practices Manual. Screening should be conducted at a dedicated entry point and no employee should be able to prevent or bypass the screening process. 

Facility

The facility topic aims at controls that shall be in place in your facility. One of the biggest parts of facility control is ensuring that you have the proper personal protective equipment available for your employees. Another important aspect is ensuring that you have proper hand washing/sanitizing stations in place for employees to use. Social distancing should be maintained when possible, but if employees must work in close proximity then barriers should be put in place to reduce the likelihood of exposure from employee to employee. Furthermore, any high touch surfaces should be cleaned and disinfected at frequent intervals. While brainstorming ideas on how to protect your employees inside the facility, engineering controls should be looked at first, followed by administrative controls and then personal protective equipment. 

Exposures

The exposure topic looks into how a company controls potential exposures from outside sources and how a potential exposure of a COVID-19 case is treated in the facility by management. This includes the elimination of non-essential in person visits and to develop protocols to minimize personal contact with anyone delivering items to the facility. Protocols should also be developed to minimize any tool/equipment sharing. If they must be shared, then a cleaning and disinfecting process should be developed. To also reduce any potential exposure, shift schedules, if applicable, should be altered to reduce the number of workers in the facility. This would also include staggering break/lunch times. If a company does have a positive COVID-19 case, plant leaders and potentially exposed employees must be notified of the positive case and exposed employees should be sent home. Any positive case(s) should be documented on a log. Exposure control is essential as it provides both an in depth proactive and thorough reactive approach in the same topic. 

All of the items mentioned above are items that could be enforced, but what the majority of enforcing bodies are looking for is good faith attempts. As each company’s procedures will vary, you should work closely with all members of your organization to develop the program that works for you. Please remember that the MTMIC Best Practices Manual will assist you in being compliant with the requirements of the Governors order. If you are interested in having your Loss Control Consultant come to your facility to conduct an assessment of where your organization is at with your COVID-19 response, we are happy to do so. Contact your Loss Control Consultant to schedule that visit. We have truly missed meeting with all of you and look forward to visiting you once again.