The Case of the Reluctant Employer

An OSHA Area Office Director described as ‘shocking’ a Florida mental health facility’s Circles of Care’s reluctance to protect its employees from the recognized danger of patient assault, and proposed a $101,397 fine.
In the third known patient attack on an employee since 2020 at Melbourne’s Circles of Care facility, a patient used “a metal hole punch to strike a mental health technician at a nurse’s workstation in the head, face, hands and arms,” the U.S. Department of Labor reported.
The technician was hospitalized and Circles of Care also was cited for not reporting the incident within 24 hours. Another worker was cut on the hand while helping with the patient.
“These attacks often occur suddenly and swiftly, causing serious and, as we’ve seen, fatal harm to workers and leaving their co-workers traumatized,” OSHA Area Office Director Erin Sanchez said, according to the report.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is highlighting initiatives by federal agencies and hospital professionals to address the mental health and well-being of health care workers as incidents of workplace violence have increased more than 50% since 2019.
A CDC blog co-authored by the American Hospital Association, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, was published ahead of #HAVhope Friday on June 7, a national day of awareness to end violence.
The Bureau of Labor statistics found that in 2020, there were 392 homicides and more than 37,000 injuries in the workplace that resulted from intentional violence.
Sales, transportation, management, construction and production are the five occupational groups with the highest rates of workplace homicide.
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OSHA cited Road Contractor Corp. for 32 safety violations, carrying a proposed $819,417 in penalties following eight inspections across the Garden State as part of the agency’s national program focused on falls.
The citation includes “willful,” “repeat,” and “serious” violations.
OSHA said the Long Branch company failed to provide employees with required fall protection, allowed workers to use portable ladders unsafely, exposed workers to silica hazards, allowed the operation of machinery without guarding, failed to provide employees with eye and face protection, and failed to have hazardous communication or written exposure control programs.
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