Know the address before someone is hurt
First aid and emergency 5 min 29 CFR 1926.50
Why it matters
When someone is hurt, the person who calls has to say where you are. Before work starts, the crew knows the job address, who calls for help, and where the first-aid kit is. If a clinic is not close, someone on the crew is trained to give first aid. A phone with no signal is not a plan.
The talk
Before work starts, the crew says the plan out loud. What is the address of this job? Who calls for help? Where is the first-aid kit? If you cannot answer, you do not have a plan yet. The address has to be one a dispatcher can use: the street, the gate, the side of the building, the level. Calling it the big job by the highway is not an address. Post that address where a person can read it while they are on the phone. A card in the foreman's truck does not help the person standing at the far end of the slab. 1926.50 is why this planning sits on a construction job.
If a clinic is not close, someone on the crew is trained to give first aid. Know who that person is before the day gets loud. Know where the kit is, and keep the path to it clear. A kit buried under coats in a gang box is a kit you will not reach. If the trained person is off the site today, say so in the huddle and name the backup. Do not wait until someone is bleeding to find out the trained person went to another job. The kit and the trained person are part of the same plan as the address.
A phone with no signal is not a plan. Walk the spot where you think you would call. If the phone shows no service there, find the backup: another spot on the site, a phone that does work, a radio to the trailer. Practice saying the address out loud in this huddle. Each person should be able to say it, then check the posted card to see if they got it right. On a real call you will not have time to hunt for the street name. The caller stays on the line and answers what the dispatcher asks. Someone else goes to the gate to meet help.
Key points
- Know the job address, who calls for help, and where the first-aid kit is before work starts.
- Post the address where a person can read it to a dispatcher.
- If a clinic is not close, someone on the crew is trained to give first aid.
- Know who that trained person is, and name a backup if they are off site.
- Keep the path to the first-aid kit clear.
- A phone with no signal is not a plan. Know the backup.
- Practice saying the address out loud in the huddle.
Do this
- Post the job address where the caller can read it.
- Name the person who calls for help before the shift starts.
- Show the crew where the first-aid kit is and keep the way to it open.
- Name the person trained in first aid when a clinic is not close.
- Check that the phone has signal, and know the backup if it does not.
Do not do this
- Do not describe the job as the one by the highway when help asks where you are.
- Do not leave the address only in the foreman's truck.
- Do not bury the first-aid kit under coats or material.
- Do not wait until someone is hurt to find out who is trained.
- Do not trust a phone that has no signal where you would call from.
Talk about it
- What address would we give a dispatcher, including the gate or the level?
- Who calls for help today, and who is trained to give first aid?
- Where does a phone have signal, and what is the backup if it does not?
Listens with this phone's voice. Nothing is sent out.
Send to the crew
The crew link opens the talk so each person can read it and sign on their own phone.
Scan at the jobsite. It opens the crew sign-off.