What entails occupational health and safety auditing at workplace?

A Health and Safety Audit of workplaces and their associated operations is a way of periodically checking if and how they are complying with requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 2007. No 31 of 2004 involves an initial evaluation of an organisation’s existing system for managing Health & Safety.

What is occupational safety and health and its purpose?

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) deals with all aspects of health and safety in the workplace and has a strong focus on primary prevention of hazards. Its goal is to prevent accidents and harm to people from work-related activities.

What is health audit?

Audit in healthcare is a process used by health professionals to assess, evaluate and improve care of patients in a systematic way. Audit measures current practice against a defined (desired) standard. It forms part of clinical governance, which aims to safeguard a high quality of clinical care for patients.

What are the main features of a health and safety audit?

A health and safety audit would generally look to:

• Assess whether current safety processes and procedures align with the law.
• Identify risks in the workplace (as well as the levels of those risks)
• Reveal arrangement strengths and weaknesses.
• Pinpoint where and how to make improvements.

Why is safety audit important?

Safety audits help employers keep their workers out of danger, avoid legal risks, increase efficiency, and determine whether they’re in compliance with federal and state regulations. As such, safety audits are an essential component of any safety program.

Why is audit important in healthcare?

Clinical audit provides the framework to improve the quality of patient care in a collaborative and systematic way. Through Audit we can identify emerging trends, which enables us to identify risks and implement actions before it becomes a bigger issue.

What does a safety audit consist of?

A safety audit is a general term used to describe an activity where a facility gathers information about one or more aspects of the workplace in order to evaluate the risk levels for health or safety issues.

What are the principles of occupational health and safety?

For occupational health services, the following functional principles are recognized; prevention and promotion; adaptation and adjustment of working conditions to the worker; rehabilitation; curative services and acute response (first aid and emergency response).

What does a health and safety audit consist of?

A health and safety audit is an expert assessment of an organisation’s health and safety policies, systems and procedures. A health a safety audit should address: Are current procedures and systems correct and delivering the expected outcomes?

What should a safety audit include?

Documents you will need include: Policy statements, risk assessment records, records of safe working procedures, records of safety training, health and safety roles and responsibilities, permit-to-work systems, accident/near miss investigations and reports, discipline and commendation policies, emergency plans.