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NASA Procedures and Guidelines

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NPR 1800.1D
Eff. Date: October 06, 2009
Cancellation Date: September 19, 2019

NASA Occupational Health Program Procedures

| TOC | ChangeHistory | Preface | Chapter1 | Chapter2 | Chapter3 | Chapter4 | Chapter5 | Chapter6 | Chapter7 | AppendixA | AppendixB | AppendixC | AppendixD | AppendixE | AppendixF | AppendixG | AppendixH | ALL |


Chapter 1. General

1.1 Designated Agency Safety and Health Official

1.1.1 The Chief Health and Medical Officer (CHMO) is the Designated Agency Safety and Health Officer (DASHO) and liaison to the Department of Labor (DOL).

1.1.2 All official, Agency-related communication with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) shall be through the DASHO.

1.1.3 The Center/Facility Director shall notify the DASHO within one hour when OSHA, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), or other occupational safety or health regulatory inspectors arrive on a NASA Center or Facility for the purpose of conducting an inspection or visit as per NPR 8715.1.

1.2 Medical Waiver Authority

1.2.1 As described in NPR 7120.11, the CHMO is the Agency Health and Medical Technical Authority (HMTA) for all health and medical technical requirements, standards, and matters. The CHMO possesses the final waiver authority for any NASA health and medical requirement and is the final interpretation authority on the applicability of all occupational health requirements across the Agency.

1.2.2 The CHMO gives medical authority to each Center's Chief Health Officer/Medical Director.

1.2.3 The CHMO promotes the health and safety of Agency personnel in space and on the ground. The CHMO develops medical policy, establishes guidelines for health and medical practice, provides guidance for health care delivery, promotes professional competency, and reviews/approves human and animal research requirements across the Agency.

1.2.4 The CHMO serves as the HMTA for NASA-unique occupational health requirements included in:

a. Section 2.15, Shift Work and Balancing Work-Rest Cycles.

b. Section 4.2, Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs).

c. Section 4.5, Reproductive and Developmental Health.

d. Section 4.6, Nanotoxicology.

e. Section 4.8, Hearing Conservation.

1.3 General Center Responsibilities

1.3.1 Centers shall advocate for budget and resources for occupational health programs to ensure compliance with OSHA, state, and local standards and NASA requirements. If a reduction in budget is anticipated to have a significant impact on the delivery of Occupational Health (OH) services, the OCHMO shall be immediately informed.

1.3.2 Center occupational health practitioners (e.g., physicians, nurses, industrial hygienists, health physicists, physical fitness professionals) shall be familiar with employees' tasks and work environment to better understand specific OH issues and cases, as well as the mechanism of injury, exposure, or illness; and evaluate safety and OH concerns.

1.3.3 Agency and Center Purchase Requesters/Requirements Initiators shall coordinate with Center OH offices to ensure requirements documents include all pertinent OH requirements.

1.3.4 Agency and Center Procurement organizations shall work with Center OH offices and Purchase Requesters/Requirements Initiators to ensure that all pertinent OH Federal and Agency provisions/clauses are included in contracts.

1.3.5 Centers shall ensure that all pertinent OH requirements are included in commercial partners, Space Act Agreements, other Federal agencies, international parties, and tenant agreements.

1.3.6 Centers shall implement effective OH programs as measured by the Agency's triennial OH review program.

1.4 Required Annual Reports

1.4.1 OSHA Report

1.4.1.1 NASA submits an annual report to the Secretary of Labor containing the status of NASA's Safety and Health Programs during the preceding year, goals and objectives for the current year, and a plan for achieving those goals. The procedure for collecting the requisite data is as follows:

a. The NASA Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer (OCHMO) and the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) electronically forward the OSHA Annual Report format to the Centers each year soon after it is received from OSHA with a prescribed deadline for submission of the OSHA-requested information to the OCHMO.

b. The Safety and Health organizations at NASA Centers jointly complete the form, provide the associated documentation, and return all OSHA requested information to the OCHMO and the OSMA in the prescribed format and electronic media by the designated deadline.

c. Other NASA organizations shall support information compilation, editing, and writing of the OSHA Annual Report effort as needed.

d. The report shall be jointly prepared by the OCHMO and the OSMA, jointly signed by the DASHO and the Director, Safety and Assurance Requirements Division, and submitted to OSHA.

1.5 Drug-Free Workplace

1.5.1 General

1.5.1.1 The overall responsibility for NASA's Drug-Free Workplace Program (DFWP) lies with the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO), with policies and procedures provided in NPR 3792.1. The OCHMO supports DFWP by ensuring Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) across the Agency support the requirements of the program. The Agency Medical Review Officer assigned to all Centers is located at the NASA Shared Services Center.

1.5.1.2 The OCHMO supports the DFWP through management of NASA Center EAP policy.

1.6 Credentialing, Education, and Training of Occupational Health Professionals

1.6.1 General

1.6.1.1 All Occupational Health (OH) professional disciplines (Occupational Medicine (OM), Industrial Hygiene (IH), Health Physics (HP), Food Sanitation (FS), EAP, Federal Workers' Compensation (FWC), and Fitness) shall comply at all times with Federal, state, and professional requirements applicable to their respective disciplines.

1.6.2 Responsibilities

1.6.2.1 Credentialing and privileging of all licensed medical practitioners and non-licensed health-care support personnel providing health care for Agency personnel shall be governed by the requirements contained in NPR 1850.1, Quality Assurance of the NASA Medical Care System.

1.6.2.2 Centers shall establish and maintain effective organizations to fulfill OH requirements using professionally qualified persons, ensuring discipline-specific professional licensures, certifications, and accreditations necessary for operations are maintained.

1.6.2.3 NASA fully uses a Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Electronic Health Records System and has trained all Centers in its operation. As clinic contracts are re-negotiated and perhaps changed, it is the Center's responsibility to ensure that every clinic has a least one individual, other than the Medical Director, dedicated to operating and using the Agency's chosen electronic medical records system.

1.6.3 Process Description

1.6.3.1 Center hiring policies shall comply with Federal and NASA credentialing requirements and with state licensure statutes.

1.6.3.2 Centers shall hire OH professionals with experience and credentials commensurate with program requirements.

1.6.3.3 Centers shall have a process to ascertain and promote education, training, and credentialing requirements for all civil service and contractor OH program personnel that is commensurate with program needs.

1.6.3.4 Centers shall conduct assessments of OH professional and career development needs to determine the training required of their OH staff. These needs shall be communicated to Center management to meet professional OH licensure and certification.

1.7 Web Site Initiatives and Capabilities

1.7.1 General

1.7.1.1 NASA OCHMO's Web sites include the Agency OH Web site and public access Web site which shall be available as resources for dissemination of OH related information to OH personnel to assist OCHMO in communicating to the Centers.

1.7.2 Responsibilities

1.7.2.1 The OCHMO maintains the Agency OH Web site as a means of disseminating information and providing guidance to NASA Centers and Facilities on OH-related topics and policies.

1.7.2.2 Centers shall refer to the Agency OH Web site for recommendations on meeting program requirements. NASA OH Documents, Guidelines, and Checklists referenced on the Agency OH Web site.

1.7.3 Process Description

1.7.3.1 The Agency OH Web site content meets all of NASA's security, accessibility, and data privacy regulations.

1.7.3.2 The Agency OH Web site shall be designed to meet the various NASA OH community needs.

1.8 Support of Federal and Interagency Initiatives

1.8.1 General

1.8.1.1 The OCHMO collaborates with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on health and work/life policies and initiatives.

1.8.1.2 The OCHMO provides guidance to Center Contracting Officer Representatives (CORs) on Center-specific health and work/life policies, and periodically reviews Center implementation of these policies.

1.8.2 Responsibilities

1.8.2.1 Centers shall adopt policies and implement programs in support of a healthy work environment as directed by the OCHMO, based on guidance from the OPM and other Federal authorities pertaining to work/life issues.

1.8.2.2 The Medical CORs and the Medical Director shall actively support all CHMO-directed health initiatives.

1.8.2.3 The Health Promotion Workgroup (HPW) Team members shall coordinate all efforts at the Center level.

1.8.3 Process Description

1.8.3.1 The CHMO communicates Agency-sanctioned work/life and health and productivity initiatives to the Centers.

1.8.3.2 The Centers implement all Agency-directed initiatives, as appropriate, to their Center populations and to the extent they are able to provide.

1.9 Occupational Health Program Periodic Review Overview

1.9.1 General

1.9.1.1 The review process assesses OH program efficacy at all Centers for the following disciplines:• OM, IH, HP, FS, Fitness Center (FC), and EAP.• The FWC case management for the Agency is reviewed at the Johnson Space Center (for astronaut claims) and the NASA Shared Services Center (for all other NASA claims). The review of FWC case management handled at the NASA Shared Services Center will take place whenever an onsite OH review is conducted at the Stennis Space Center.

1.9.2 Responsibilities

1.9.2.1 The OCHMO assesses the effectiveness of the Agency's OH programs at all Centers. To carry out this responsibility, it conducts periodic onsite reviews of OH programs at all Centers.

1.9.2.2 Center Directors shall be responsible for providing adequate provisions and resources in support of an Agency review. This includes providing requested documentation and information in a timely fashion and in an orderly arrangement; onsite office and meeting room accommodations; information technology support; and a status of the OH programs at in-briefings. It also includes: identifying discipline-specific points of contact (POC); being present for and supporting the onsite review activities; and responding with corrective actions to review findings in a timely manner.

1.9.3 Process Description

1.9.3.1 A detailed description of the review process is found in Chapter 7 of this document.

1.10 Recordkeeping - Overall

1.10.1 General

1.10.1.1 Centers shall ensure that all OH contracts, at the time of their negotiation, expressly require record keeping of any and all records containing personnel health information as per Center needs.

1.10.1.2 All occupational health records at the Centers are NASA records and shall be retained at the Centers regardless of contract changes and dispositioned in accordance with NASA's record requirements and this NPR.

1.10.2. Responsibility

1.10.2.1 The Center shall ensure that each new OH contract or contract renewal contain specific language on record keeping requirements.



| TOC | ChangeHistory | Preface | Chapter1 | Chapter2 | Chapter3 | Chapter4 | Chapter5 | Chapter6 | Chapter7 | AppendixA | AppendixB | AppendixC | AppendixD | AppendixE | AppendixF | AppendixG | AppendixH | ALL |
 
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This Document is Obsolete and Is No Longer Used.
Check the NODIS Library to access the current version:
http://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov