OHSAH Re-Structures to Add Value to BC Healthcare:
A Message from Chief Executive Director Catherine Fast

April 22, 2010 The Occupational Health and Safety Agency for Healthcare (OHSAH) in BC has, since its inception in 1998, worked to reduce workplace injuries and illness in healthcare workers and return injured workers back to the job quickly and safely. OHSAH is jointly governed by employers and unions (bipartite), providing an innovative approach to improving workplace health and safety in the healthcare sector. A true strength of the Agency is the collaboration that occurs among these key stakeholders.

To better serve the needs of our partners, OHSAH has embarked on a major re-structuring in order to focus on key priorities identified by the healthcare industry as critical to supporting our mandate to make healthcare a healthier place to work. The restructured agency will focus on coordinating the development of provincial occupational health and safety (OHS) standards, information technology solutions to support OHS and the sharing of educational resources and OHS tools among all BC healthcare organizations to reduce duplication and add value to healthcare.

As part of this re-structuring, the position of Chief Scientific and Medical Officer (CSMO) will be phased out over the coming year. Dr Jaime Guzman, the current CSMO, has kindly agreed to continue in this role through this transition period, to ensure appropriate scientific and medical support is in place to continue the work of OHSAH. I want to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Guzman for his many accomplishments, excellent work, commitment and service that he has provided on behalf of the Agency since July 2007 and for his unwavering support of Board decisions during the restructuring.

Although our structure has changed, our commitment to the defining vision of the Agency as a key enabler of bipartite engagement to make BC healthcare a healthier place to work continues. Click here for a copy of our new organizational chart.