Ohio hospital pushes back against OSHA

• Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio is contesting citations it received from OSHA alleging it didn’t protect employees from patient assaults or properly document the incidents.
• OSHA issued Nationwide Children’s Hospital two citations after a months-long investigation into complaints alleging unsafe working conditions at its Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion.
• The hospital allegedly failed to protect nurses and mental health specialists from sexual and physical assaults such as groping, biting, kicking, punching, head-butting, and scratching that resulted in serious physical injuries such as lacerations, contusions, sprains, strains, headaches, and concussions.
• Nationwide Children’s said it “is continuing to engage” with OSHA and notified the federal agency it wants to be able to contest its initial findings.
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Small-business panel makes OSHA recommendations

• A Small Business Advocacy Review Panel convened to address the potential for an OSHA standard concerning workplace violence in healthcare and social assistance.
• The Panel recommended OSHA consider the need for a rule, given “existing regulations, guidance, and accreditation standard on WPV prevention.”
• The group also wants flexibility in the standard to allow employers to tailor their compliance approaches to the particular circumstances of their facilities.
• The panel also wants recordkeeping requirements to make it clear that, while certain information should be recorded about an incident, there would not necessarily be a requirement for a separate form or format that employers would be required to use.
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Airline fined after worker sucked into engine

• Piedmont Airlines, an American Airlines subsidiary, was fined $15,625 by OSHA over the death of an Alabama ground crew worker who was “sucked into the engine” of a plane on New Year’s Eve.
• The worker, identified by local outlet AL.com as Courtney Edwards, was acting as a wing walker for an arriving aircraft when she walked directly in front of an idling turbofan engine and was sucked into the engine, and was killed.
• Edwards was a 34-year-old mother of three.
• Piedmont “did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or were likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees that were exposed to ingestion and jet blast hazards,” OSHA said.
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OSHA: Alabama shop didn’t follow procedures

• Federal workplace safety inspectors have determined the operator of a southern Alabama tire shop could have prevented a 45-year-old mechanic’s fatal injuries by following required safety standards.
• OSHA found the tire service mechanic and an apprentice had just inflated a tractor tire after mounting it on its rim at Neal Tindol Tire LLC in Opp on Jan. 18, 2023, when seconds later the tire exploded as the mechanic leaned over it to unhook the air compressor’s hose.
• The tire struck the mechanic before flying upward, breaking through the ceiling and landing on the roof.
• Neal Tindol Tire faces $14,511 in proposed penalties for the violations.
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