OSHA Inspection: RESIDENTIAL SUPPORT SERVICES INC.,

Issued

Jul 7, 2017

Abate by

Dec 4, 2017

Penalty

Initial $11,408 · Current $8,556 Reduced

General-duty citation text

OSH ACT of 1970 Section (5)(a)(1): 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 the hazard of being physically assaulted by clients who exhibited aggressive behavior.            a. Residential Support Services Inc.: On or about April 09, 2017, and at times prior, the employer failed to keep the workplace free of hazards. Employees including registered nurses, lead techs, habilitative (HAB) techs, transportation drivers, and group home managers were exposed to incidents of violent behavior by clients that have resulted in bites, broken skin, bruising, scratches, soft tissue trauma and injuries to the head and torso from punches and kicks. Employees were exposed to the hazard of physical assaults during routine interactions while working with clients who have a history of violent behavior.  The employer has not established or implemented effective measures to protect employees from assaults or other physical violence in the workplace.                  Among other methods, feasible and acceptable means to abate the hazard of workplace violence include:                 Engineering and Work Practice Controls:  Due 12/4/17      1) Conduct reviews of workplace incidents, evaluate the incident responses on the security cameras, and determine if any modifications or additions to incident response procedures would be helpful for the times in which assistance is summoned.     2) Install a barrier between the front and rear seats of company vehicles used to transport clients to prevent clients from being able to reach over the front seats and assault drivers.     3) Eliminate transportation of clients in employee owned vehicles.     4) Improve emergency communication by supplementing the house phones with panic alarms, radios or cell phones (with i.e,ore,Ore,Pres,Re,Pren,Poe,PE,PRC" style="background-color:yellow;">pre-programmed emergency numbers) for every employee working in the group homes who may be in close proximity to clients exhibiting violent behavior, in order to rapidly and reliably summon designated, trained staff.  These employees include but are not limited to: registered nurses, lead techs, HAB techs, and group home managers.  In addition, provide training on use and limitations of the equipment.     5) Transform the current on-call practices to that of having on-call staff immediately available to reliably assist in responding to workplace violence incidents on all three shifts and to monitor the group homes to ensure employees' safety during incident.                 6) Have security staff available to assist in responding to violent events on all three shifts and to monitor the group homes.            Training: Due 12/4/17      7) Ensure that all staff members who may come into contact with clients in the course of their work are trained both initially and at regular intervals in the methods to protect themselves if clients become violent and when de-escalation fails.     8) Conduct house specific training at the beginning of employment, when significant changes are made to the policies and/or procedures and annually thereafter.     9) Conduct client specific training at the beginning of employment, and when clients have been identified as having a history of violent behavior.         Administrative Controls: Due 8/1/17      10) Ensure the client to staff ratio on all shifts is in accordance with state regulations and adequate to handle incidents of violent behavior by clients.       11) Conduct site specific job hazard assessments to identify any potential for unsecured items (i.e. glass cups, bowls, knives and metal silverware) being used as dangerous objects or weapons.     12) Establish a system such as chart tags or log books to identify clients with a history of violent behavior.  Update clients? behavioral histories as needed.  Review WPV incidents from the previous shift during change-in-shift meetings.    13) Institute procedures that would communicate to staff any WPV incident so that employees who might not have access to client charts will be aware of a client?s previous acts of violence.       Post Incident:       14) Conduct an investigation and debriefing after each act of workplace violence, including modifications to the GER procedure as appropriate to include documented supervisor input and follow-up with the affected employee(s).  Conduct a root cause or similar analysis of each workplace violence incident, including lessons learned, corrective actions to prevent recurrence, and review and evaluation of all GERs related incident addressing each specific hazard identified in the workplace evaluation.  Solicit feedback from impacted employees regarding root cause analysis, including recommendations for improving core safety program components.          15) Establish a liaison with local law enforcement representatives.         16) Establish and disseminate a written anti-retaliation policy that makes clear that such reporting is encouraged and that employees who report such workplace violence incidents or safety concerns will not be retaliated against in any manner.

Issued

Jul 7, 2017

Abate by

Aug 2, 2017

Penalty

Initial $0 · Current $0

General-duty citation text

29 CFR 1910.1030(f)(2)(iv): The employer did not ensure that employees who declined to accept the hepatitis B vaccination offered by the employer signed the statement in appendix A:     a. Residential Support Services Inc.: On or about January 10, 2017, and at times prior, the employer failed to require employees, who declined to accept the hepatitis B vaccination, sign a declination form.