OSHA Inspection: NORRELL HOME HEALTH CARE

Issued

Jun 20, 1989

Abate by

Feb 1, 1990

Penalty

Initial $200 · Current $100 Reduced

General-duty citation text

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The
employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were
free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death
or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to:
a) The hazard of nursing personal performing stressful lifting tasks due
to the amount of weight supported and the body posture assumed during
patient transfers or lifts.
The tasks involve handling patients including but not limited to the
following situations:
1) Lifting a patient from a wheelchair/chair to a bed and vice versa;
2) Turning a patient in bed;
3) Adjusting the position of a patient lying in bed, and;
4) Lifting a patient from the floor to the bed.
Feasible and useful methods to correct the hazard, among other methods
would be to implement a musculoskeletal accident prevention program
which would include but not be limited to the following essentials:
1) Conduct a survey in conjunction with the Bethany Nursing home to
identify those ergonomic actions which may contribute to back and
injuries.
2) Institute positive corrective measures such as the use of lifting
and movement assistance devices with patients, implement a back
exercise program, and redesign areas to reduce the horizontal hand
travel distance to eliminate and/or improve conditions identified as
contributory factors to musculoskeletal injuries.
3) Incorporate into the orientation program more comprehensive training
to ensure that all employees possess, demonstrate, and verbilize
working knowledge of body mechanics and manual lifting.
4) Sureveillance of the work area on a regular basis for the purpose of
monitoring the lifting techniques being practices.
STEP 1. Effective administrative protection such as employee training,
physical assessment, evaluation of fitness levels following
injuries, and establishment of work practices shall be provided
as an interim protective measure until feasible engineering or
administrative controls can be implemented or whenever such
controls fail to reduce employee exposure to nominal risk.
STEP 2. Submit to the Area Director a written, detailed plan of
abatement outline a schedule for the implementation of
engineering or administrative measures to control employee
injury due to manual lifting tasks. Engineering controls to
reduce musculoskeletal stresses include, but are not limited to,
job redesign, reduction of the horizontal and vertical load
distance from the body, reduction of the lifting frequency
and/or weight, and the use of mechanical lifting aids. This plan
shall include at a minimum the target dates for the following
actions which must be consistent with the step abatement dates:
a) Evaluation of the conditions, locations and manual lifting activities
that the employees are performing at the onset of musculoskeletal
injuries;
b) Evaluation of applicable control measure(s);
c) Procurement, installation, and operation of selected control
measure(s).
d) Monitoring to assure effective utilization of the control measure(s).
STEP 3. Abatement shall have been completed by the implementation of
feasible engineering and/or administrative controls and upon
verification of their effectiveness in reducing the occurrence
of musculoskeletal injuries.

Issued

Jun 20, 1989

Abate by

Feb 1, 1990

Penalty

Initial $120 · Current $120

Issued

Jun 20, 1989

Abate by

Feb 1, 1990

Penalty

Initial $120 · Current $120