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Section 3400 of the General Industry Safety Orders requires that the employer "ensure" the ready availability of medical personnel for advice and consultation "on matters of industrial health or injury."
For most places of employment, the presence of an infirmary, clinic, hospital or emergency service providers, such as the fire department and available emergency medical technicians, in near proximity to the workplace is sufficient to meet this requirement. When these facilities or persons are not in the near proximity, then a person or persons shall be "adequately" trained to render first aid.
If an ambulance service normally isn't available within 30 minutes, Cal/OSHA may require stretchers and blankets, or other adequate warm covering. When the worksite is at an isolated location, the regulation also requires provisions be made in advance for prompt medical attention to serious injuries.
If the workplace is one where employees may be exposed to injurious corrosive materials, the regulation requires there be suitable facilities for quickly drenching/flushing the eyes or body in an emergency.
Adequate first aid materials must be “readily” available for all employees at the worksite, according to the regulation. The first aid materials at the worksite are to be approved by a consulting physician. Over-the-counter medications, whether aspirin or allergy pills, cannot be included in a workplace first aid kit unless they are recommended by the company physician.
The first aid material will be:
More specific first aid requirements appear in the Construction Safety Orders, Section 1512. These regulations require minimum first aid supplies to be determined by “an employer-authorized, licensed physician” or according to a table based on the number of employees.
For workplaces of 1–15 employees, the table lists: adhesive dressings, one-inch wide adhesive tape rolls, eye dressing packet, two-inch gauze bandage roll or compress, two-inch and four-inch sterile gauze pads, triangular bandages, safety pins, tweezers and scissors, “appropriate record forms” and an up-to-date first aid book.
The regulation lists additional supplies for workplaces with more employees.
The regulation requires that there be first aid-trained personnel at the worksite. It also prohibits the employer from putting the following materials in the first aid kit unless an employer-authorized, licensed physician specifically approves them in writing: drugs, antiseptics, eye irrigation solutions, inhalants, medicines or proprietary preparations.
Besides construction, other employers in high-hazard industries, such as the electrical industry (high voltage transmission and supply), mining and tunneling, logging, to name a few, are to have first aid-trained personnel on all worksites in addition to the employees being trained in CPR.