All provinces and territories · Editable Word template

Health care and home care safety manual template

A complete written health and safety program for private clinics, long-term care and retirement homes, group homes, home care and home support agencies, and community nursing, wherever in Canada you are. It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements and written for the work: violence from clients, residents and families, safe patient and resident handling, mechanical lifts, home visits and working alone in the community, routine practices and outbreaks, PPE, sharps and body fluid exposures, hazardous drugs, disinfectants, oxygen, psychological health and evacuating residents who cannot walk. Section 15 sets out the law of every province and territory, and federal workplaces, side by side, with each jurisdiction’s violence, patient handling, sharps, hazardous drug, respirator and radiation rules. It arrives as an editable Word file you make your own.

A look inside

Sample pages from the manual, marked and cut short. Your copy has no watermark.

Cover with room for your logo and company name

Linked table of contents, laid out on the 14 national COR elements plus a section on working across Canada

Section 3: eighteen safe work practices written for health care and home care, safe patient handling shown

Section 15: each jurisdiction's rules on violence, patient handling, sharps, hazardous drugs, respirators and radiation

Appendix A: all 74 documentation questions of the national COR elements mapped

Print-ready forms: the client and home visit risk assessment shown

What’s in the manual

1. Safety and health policy

A signed, dated policy, the written program, and responsibilities for management, supervisors, nurses, personal support workers and aides, therapists, support staff and drivers, and how safety fits with the client’s rights and dignity.

2. Hazard assessment, analysis and control

Formal hazard assessments by location and type of care, the 5 × 5 risk matrix, a critical task inventory, and the client and home visit risk assessment done before the first visit.

3. Safe work practices

Eighteen practices for care work: the client’s rights, preventing violence, patient handling, lifts and slings, routine practices, additional precautions and outbreaks, PPE, sharps, body fluid exposures, hazardous drugs, chemicals, home visits, driving, falls, oxygen, kitchen and laundry, psychological health and fire.

4. Safe job procedures

Step-by-step procedures for a mechanical lift transfer, repositioning in bed, putting on and taking off PPE, a needlestick or body fluid exposure, hazardous drug spills, starting and ending a home visit, an aggressive client and evacuating residents who cannot walk.

5. Company safety rules

Life-saving rules for care work (no manual lift where a lift is required, leave a home that isn’t safe, check in and out, never recap a needle), and a progressive discipline process applied the same way every time.

6. Personal protective equipment

Gloves, gowns, masks, eye protection and respirators chosen by task and precaution, fit testing, seal checks and what to do when a worker can’t get a seal.

7. Preventative maintenance program

Mechanical lifts and slings, beds, transfer aids, oxygen equipment, sharps containers and vehicles.

8. Training and communication

Patient handling, violence prevention and de-escalation, infection control, PPE and fit testing, and orientation at each location and before the first home visit.

9. Inspections

Workplace inspections of care and support areas, community staff’s kits, and lifts, slings and equipment checked before use.

10. Investigations and reporting

Violent incidents, handling injuries, needlesticks and exposures, and falls reported and investigated, with client information kept to what safety needs.

11. Emergency preparedness

Code white or its local name, a missing client, fire and evacuation, an exposure, and a worker who misses a check-in.

12. Statistics, records and document control

Risk assessments, care alerts, handling assessments, the sharps injury log, fit tests and outbreak logs, kept for the longest period any jurisdiction requires and away from health records.

13. Legislation

OHS law, its health care rules, radiation law for imaging and dental, the CSA respirator and psychological health standards, public health guidance as guidance, and the right to refuse.

14. Procurement and contractor management

Buying lifts, safety-engineered needles and PPE, contractors in care areas, and obligations to facilities and funders.

15. Working across Canada

Whose law applies, then every province and territory and federal workplaces side by side: the act and regulation, the regulator, violence and risk assessment, patient handling, sharps and needles, hazardous drugs, respirators, radiation equipment, working alone, and serious incidents to report and how fast.

Appendix A. COR cross-reference

Every one of the 74 documentation questions in the 14 national COR elements, what it looks for in plain words, the section that answers it, and whether the auditor will also want your records.

Appendix B. Forms

37 print-ready forms that match the manual, each with a form code: among them the client and home visit risk assessment, violence risk assessment and behaviour care alert, patient handling assessment, sharps and body fluid exposure report, lift and sling inspection and outbreak log.

Written for the work, not just the province

Care work is hurt most by lifting people, by violence from the people being cared for, and by working alone in somebody else’s home. This manual is written around them, practice by practice and procedure by procedure.

The forms identify clients by number and never ask for more health information than safety needs.

One program for every province you work in

Your crews follow the occupational health and safety law of the province or territory where the care is given, not where your office is. The manual sets your company’s rules once and gathers what changes at each border into section 15, so a supervisor starting work in a new province looks up what applies there.

It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements, so it suits a COR audit wherever you certify. Each certifying partner uses its own audit tool, so check it against yours; our provincial manuals follow each province’s audit exactly. No template can guarantee a certificate on its own, and we don’t claim to.

Who it is for

Private clinics, long-term care and retirement homes, assisted living, group homes, home care and home support agencies, and community nursing.

A template is a starting point, not legal or clinical advice: a qualified person must adapt it to your services and your locations before you issue it.

Lifetime updates

When the law changes, we publish a new edition and email everyone who bought the template. Every update is free, for as long as we publish it.

Version 1.0 October 29, 2026
- First edition, written for private health care and home care employers and laid out on the 14 national elements of the harmonized COR audit.
- Section 15 sets out the law and the violence prevention, patient handling, sharps, hazardous drug, respirator and radiation rules of every province and territory and federal workplaces, checked against the legislation in force on 28 October 2026.