OSHA Inspection: BRIDGEWELL, INCORPORATED

Issued

2014-02-26 00:00:00

Abate by

2014-12-17 00:00:00

Penalty

Initial $7000.00 · Current $4000.00 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 serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to acts of workplace violence including, but not limited to: physical assaults and bites.    Location: Residence, 200 Locust Street, Lynn, MA:    On or about August 28, 2013, employees working at the Stadium Condos, 200 Locust Street, Lynn, MA were exposed to acts of workplace violence, including, but not limited to, physical assaults and bites.  The employer's workplace violence prevention program and related training did not adequately address the hazards of physical assault that may be posed by Individuals.        Feasible means of abatement, among others include:    1. Document and communicate all workplace violence incidents in a system that ensures management?s timely review and response.   2. Review workplace violence incidents in the safety committee meetings to ensure effective and timely follow-up mechanisms are in place to eliminate reoccurrence of workplace violent acts.  3. Assess programs for the need of protective devices (i.e. bite guards, protective gloves, etc.)  4. Provide employees with personal duress/panic buttons with no-response alarms connected to a continually monitored and automatic response system as described in Lone Worker Safety Systems.  5. Install panic buttons in employee?s offices within the program location.  6. Install recording security camera systems in the common hallways and supervisors office to monitor behavior.  7. Create a stand-alone adequate, comprehensive, written workplace violence prevention program to include the following elements:      a. Including a comprehensive workplace violence program that includes all potential sources of workplace violence or threatening acts by intruders and clients;      b. Clear, written description of how employees should respond to threats, aggression and assault, including guidelines  on when to call police;      c. Clear written statement that employees will not experience retaliation for reporting incidents of threats or  violence or for calling police;      d. Hazard/threat/security assessment including records review to assess potential threats posed by clients.  Inspection of the worksite for risk assessment, e.g. potential weapons, potential for victim to cut off from communication, potential for physical entrapment of victim, and employee survey to further assess potential risks;      e. Implementation of workplace controls and prevention strategies;      f. Responsibilities of staff for responding and reporting incidents or threats;      g. Training and education of all direct care staff to include de-escalation of aggression crisis response to out-of-control aggression; extrication from physical holds;      h. Incident reporting and investigation to include root cause analysis, lessons learned and prevention plans;      i. Injury reporting and investigation to include root cause analysis, lessons learned, trend analysis of summary data and prevention plans;      j. How and where an injured employee should seek medical care, including after-hours care;      k. How and where an employee should seek emotional support and mental health care, including after-hours care;      l. Mechanism for employees and managers to elevate the reporting of significant incidents above the level of an immediate supervisor, in the event that supervisor fails to act in a timely manner;      m. Periodic review of the program?s effectiveness, using objective measures and identifying interventions for improvement.  8. Conduct more extensive training so that all employees clearly understand the company?s workplace violence prevention program.  Train employees on behavioral limits in threatening and/or aggressive clients where appropriate and authorize employees to implement limits appropriately.  In addition, train all employees to state clearly to clients and employees that violence is not permitted or tolerated.  Train all employees how to respond during violent incidents at work.  Further train employees on: recognizing when a client is exhibiting aggressive behavior and techniques for timely de-escalating the behavior; risk factors that cause or contribute to assaults.    9. Implementing and maintain a buddy system for at least second and third shifts as appropriate based upon a complete hazard assessment.  10. Ensure reliable communication between shifts so that all direct care staff are aware of clients with potentially problematic behavior. This may include establishing a system such as chart tags, log books, or verbal census reports to identify clients with assaultive behavior problems and train all staff to understand the system established.  11. Expand the role of the Safety Committee to include Health expertise to evaluate incidents/injuries, and implement preventive plans. Review workplace violence incidents in the safety committee meetings to ensure effective and timely follow-up mechanisms are in place to eliminate reoccurrence of violent acts.