Karen Daw, Occupational Health and Safety Expert

The Risky Health Care Business

What she does: Karen is an occupational health and safety expert in the health care industry with over two decades' experience helping medical, dental, and professional offices with safety, infection control, and compliance systems. She began career in the emergency department at Ohio Health's Riverside Methodist Hospital and then served as the assistant director of sterilization monitoring for the Ohio State University College of Dentistry before becoming it's health and safety director and now works with health care professionals and entities across the US. She has authored articles and CE courses on safety in dentistry and is an authorized US Department of Labor OSHA trainer as well as an active and current member of the Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention, and CDC Dental Infection Control.

On risk: "There's the risk of receiving citations and those inspections are public information. I can do a quick search and tell you all the medical practices that were inspected by OSHA so it's public information sometimes that lands you on the evening news, too. That's another thing as well is your reputation is at stake. I look at it from not just the immediate impact of it, but what are some of those indirect and also long term implications of not adhering to OSHA requirements too so there's that association with the risk … When people are assessing their practices, looking for the not so obvious, really thinking, be forward thinking, look for the things that is there a possibility this might occur? What can we do to prevent that now? The risk is low, but it's never a zero … People look at it from this very broad brushstroke. They're doing annual training and I always tell people you're doing a great job of addressing the more obvious things, what I want you to do is look for the not so obvious."