Ohio Hospital Exposed Nurses and Other Staff to Workplace Violence
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has determined a children’s hospital in Columbus, Ohio failed to adequately protect healthcare employees from workplace violence. Patients attacked nurses and other healthcare professionals and their bites, kicks, punches, and other assaults resulted in staff members sustaining serious injuries.
An investigation was launched by OSHA in November 2022 following complaints from nurses and mental health staff at the Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion at Nationwide Children’s Hospital who had suffered serious injuries due to violent patient incidents, including lacerations, concussions, and sprains. Nationwide Children’s Hospital is the second-largest pediatric hospital in the United States and operates 68 facilities throughout Ohio and accepted over 1.5 million patient visits a year. The Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion provides acute behavioral healthcare services through intensive outpatient programs.
OSHA determined that employees at the facility were exposed to the hazard of workplace violence due to insufficient safety controls. Incidents included groping, biting, kicking, punching, head-butting, and scratching, which resulted in several employees suffering serious injuries during the admission process. The facility also failed to maintain proper records about injuries to its employees in the workplace.
OSHA issued a citation for one serious violation due to the failure to protect its workers from workplace violence and one other-than-serious violation related to records of incidents of workplace violence. Corrective actions have been recommended to improve safety in the workplace and $18,000 in penalties have been proposed. The Behavioral Health Pavilion at Nationwide Children’s Hospital has 15 days from the date the citations were issued to comply, request an informal conference with the OSHA Area Director, or contest the findings.
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The suggested control measures to improve safety include the development and implementation of a written workplace violence prevention program specific to the conditions and hazards at the facility, specific written procedures for employees to take when encountering or responding to an incident of workplace violence, the development and implementation of standardized patient admission protocols to address patient on staff workplace violence, controls to prevent patients from using furniture as weapons, and to ensure there is adequate staffing to safely address changes in patient acuity and patient census.
“Behavioral healthcare workers can be exposed to risks when treating patients who suffer with conditions that can lead to violent outbursts,” said OSHA Area Director Larry Johnson in Columbus, Ohio. “Unfortunately, Nationwide Children’s Hospital failed to take the necessary precautions that could have prevented their employees from being injured.”
