Essential Risk Assessments of Premises for At-Home Healthcare Visits

In Short

• Risk assessments are essential for ensuring the safety of healthcare workers and patients during home visits.
• Businesses must identify hazards, evaluate risks, and implement measures to minimise harm.
• Regular reviews of risk assessments help maintain safety and comply with legal obligations.

Tips for Businesses

Conduct risk assessments before each home healthcare visit to protect your workers and clients. Document potential hazards, involve staff in discussions, and update safety measures as needed. Regularly review processes to stay compliant with workplace health and safety laws and demonstrate your commitment to creating a safe environment.

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Table of Contents

• What are Your WHS Duties?
• How Do You Conduct a Risk Assessment?
• What are Common Risks Associated With At-Home Healthcare Visits?
• Key Takeaways
• Frequently Asked Questions

Work health and safety (WHS) involves managing risks to your workers’ and workplaces’ health and safety. As an employer, you have the primary duty of care to take reasonable steps to ensure the health and safety of your workers and others in the workplace. To help comply with your WHS duties, you should conduct a risk assessment in the home before a healthcare visit is conducted to identify potential hazards and implement appropriate controls to reduce the risk of injury or illness for workers, carers and clients. This is crucial for ensuring patient safety when delivering safe care in a home environment.

This article explains:

1. your WHS duties;
2. how to conduct a risk assessment; and
3. common risks associated with at-home healthcare visits.

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What are Your WHS Duties?

A person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) has the primary duty of care to protect the health and safety of workers and other persons in the workplace. The model WHS laws require PCBUs to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the:

• provision and maintenance of a safe workplace, including safe plant and structures and systems of work;
• safe use, handling and storage of plants, structures and substances;
• provision of adequate and accessible facilities for the welfare of workers;
• provision of information, training, instruction and supervision necessary to maintain a healthy and safe workplace; and
• monitoring of the health of workers and conditions at the workplace. 

Notably, several factors are relevant to determine what is ‘reasonably practicable’ in the circumstances, including:

• the likelihood of the hazard or risk occurring;
• the degree of harm that might result from the hazard or risk;
• knowledge about the hazard or the risk and ways of managing the risk;
• the availability and suitability of options to eliminate or minimise the risk; and
• the cost associated with the available options of managing the risk.

A failure to comply with your WHS duties may result in prosecution and liability for penalties. Under the model WHS laws, the maximum penalty is currently $16.634 million for a corporation. Whereas, for an individual, the maximum penalty is $1.663 million and 10 years imprisonment. 

How Do You Conduct a Risk Assessment?

Safe Work Australia’s model code of practice on ‘How to manage work health and safety risks’ (Code) includes the following figure to illustrate the risk management process.

1. Identify Hazards

You should identify what could cause harm to people, including physical and mental injury or illness. For example, hazards may arise from the:

• physical work environment;
• use of equipment, material and substances;
• conduct of people in the home while workers are delivering care; and
• work process.

The Code also includes tips to identify hazards, such as:

• inspecting the workplace;
• consulting your workers: for example, you can conduct a worker survey or ask your workers about health and safety issues they have encountered; and
• reviewing available information: for example, you can seek information and advice from regulators, legal advisors, WHS advisors, industry associations and technical specialists.

2. Assess Risks

A risk assessment involves determining, firstly, how hazards may cause harm. Secondly, you must assess how severe the harm could be. Finally, you should assess the likelihood of the harm occurring.

3. Control Risks

You should implement and maintain effective measures to control risks. To assist, the Code provides the following figure to illustrate the hierarchy of control measures.

The most effective control measure involves eliminating the risk. However, if this is not reasonably practicable, you should work through the alternatives in the hierarchy to minimise the risk.

4. Review Control Measures

You should regularly review your control measures for effectiveness and improvements.

What are Common Risks Associated With At-Home Healthcare Visits?

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has published a guide to working safely in people’s homes which identifies common risks that you should consider for home visits, including but not limited to:

• Work-related violence: for example, biting, scratching, hitting, kicking and tripping;
• Work-related stress: for example, work demands, lack of role clarity, poor support from managers and exposure to emotionally distressing situations;
• Manual tasks: for example, hoisting or moving clients;
• Remote or isolated work;
• Electrical safety;
• Biological hazards;
• Hazardous substances/chemicals;
• Slips, trips and falls: for example, slippery floor surfaces, obstacles and other trip hazards; and
• Fatigue: for example, mentally and physically demanding work, long periods of time awake, and poor work scheduling and planning.

Key Takeaways

A PCBU has the primary duty of care to ensure the health and safety of workers and workplaces. Workers who provide healthcare services in clients’ homes may be exposed to a range of hazards that can cause physical and mental illness and injury to the worker, client, and others in the home. You should conduct a risk assessment of the home to identify hazards, assess risks, and determine what controls you can implement to eliminate or reduce these risks.

If you have questions about complying with your WHS duties, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions. Call us today on [insert number] or visit our membership page.

Frequently Asked Questions