blood pressure monitor

mushroomHR

Could there be any liability on the part of an employer if they were to provide a blood pressure monitor (similar to those automatic ones found in drug stores) for employees to use? Thanks.

LivindonSouth

I think no more liability than you'd have if you provided disposable thermometors or a set of scales. The one that is bothering me is that my HR Assistant has for many years kept a BP cuff in her office and employees file in and out of her office for her to check their BP. I do see that as inviting liability and am about to stop it. The employees see it as a service. Even the facility manager sees no harm in it. Why am I the only one who can clearly see potential liability here?

mushroomHR

I agree with you Don. If a person is actually taking the blood pressure reading for someone else there may be some liability however, if it is an automatic unit doing the reading I see no liability. I could be wrong though. Thanks for your insight.

LivindonSouth

The things that bother me are the potential for her to make remarks to an employee about the results of the BP reading, as if she were a nurse. Another thing that strikes me is that if someone has a reading of 170 over 105 and she sends them back to work, what might be the potential of that biting us in the butt later. As if we returned an employee to the job knowing it was dangerous to do so. I just see ZERO on the positive side for having a BP cuff in HR. ZERO. Maybe somebody can convince me I am worrying needlessly.

Crout

I would be very worried. What an HR Assistant is doing posing as a medical professional is beyond me.

TN HR

There is absolute liability in both. In Don's case, you have the potential for the assistant's training, technique and perhaps even diagnosis (I pray she's not doing this) to come into question. You also have equipment calibration/malfunction/serviceability issues.

In Mushroom's case you are still liable for having a machine on your premises that could potentially be taking inaccurate readings or the "ranges" printed on it could be wrong, or what have you.

In Mushroom's case, you at least have a third party you can try to shift most of the liability to, but I doubt most would be successful.