You can file a report with OSHA by phone, fax, email, regular mail, via an online contact form, or by visiting an OSHA office in person. However, some channels of communication are not appropriate for some types of reports. These are the most common reasons for filing a report with OSHA:

• To report an emergency, severe injury, or fatality.
• To alert OSHA to unsafe working conditions.
• To report workplace safety and health violations.
• To file a complaint and request an inspection.
• Filing a whistleblower complaint following retaliation.
• To submit the annual summary OSHA Form 300A.

How to File a Report with OSHA in an Emergency

When reporting an emergency, severe injury, or fatality, OSHA recommends calling the 24-hour hotline at 1-800-321-6742. Alternatively, businesses can also call the nearest OSHA office if they are covered by a state plan. However, if a state office is closed, it is not permitted to leave a message to file a report with OSHA concerning an emergency, severe injury, or fatality.

Severe injuries and fatalities in some states can also be reported via an online “Serious Event” form. If permitted by the state the time limit to file a report with OSHA is twenty-four hours for reporting an in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or eye loss, and eight hours for reporting a fatality. This channel of communication is not suitable for reporting an emergency.

Filing a Non-Urgent Report with OSHA

To file a report with OSHA relating to a failure of OSHA compliance (unsafe working conditions and safety and health violations), file a complaint, or request an inspection, it is possible to use any available channel of communication. For most people, the online complaint form is the most convenient, but the number of characters allowed limits the reporting of complex hazards.

Consequently, a number of reports are made by fax, email, or regular mail. To help file a report with OSHA using any of these channels of communication, it can be helpful to complete the “Notice of Alleged Safety or Health Hazards” online and attach a separate letter advising OSHA to the nature and location(s) of the hazard when multiple hazards exist or when one hazard exists in multiple locations.

Making a Whistleblower Complaint

When an employee makes a complaint to OSHA, they are protected against retaliation or discrimination by their employer under Standard 1977.3 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. If an employer does retaliate or discriminate against an employee, it is possible to file a report with OSHA provided that the following four conditions have been met:

• The employee engaged in an activity protected by the whistleblower protection law.
• The employer knew or suspected the employee engaged in the protected activity.
• The employer took an adverse action against the employee.
• The employee’s protected activity motivated or contributed to the adverse action.

Whistleblower complaints can be made orally (i.e., by phone), in writing (i.e., by email), or online using the OSHA Whistleblower Complaint Form. However, whistleblower complaints cannot be made anonymously, employees are unable to request their names are withheld from their employers, and the complaint has to be made within 30 days of the alleged retaliation or discrimination.

Submitting OSHA Form 300A

Despite recent changes to the OSHA reporting requirements, many employers are still required to submit OSHA Form 300A annually. The form – which summarizes work-related injuries and illnesses – can now only be submitted electronically by entering data onto a web form, uploading a CSV file, or by using OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application. It is not possible to file a Form 300A with OSHA by any other method.

The failure to submit Form 300A by March 2 each year is a violation of OSHA for which employers can be cited. Furthermore, OSHA has directed Compliance Safety and Health Officer to perform a full recordkeeping audit on employers when there is evidence of potential systematic recordkeeping issues. Therefore, if you are experiencing recordkeeping challenges, or require advice about how to file a report with OSHA, you should seek professional compliance advice.

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued citations to two hospitals over health and safety failures, resulting in almost $24,000 in fines.

Florida Behavioral Health Facility Fined for Failing to Protect Workers from Workplace Violence

OSHA conducted an investigation of UHS of Delaware Inc.- Wekiva Springs Center LLC, which does business as Wekiva Springs Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, in response to an alarming number of incidents involving workplace violence.

Wekiva Springs provides treatment for individuals suffering from behavioral health and substance abuse issues. OSHA visited the facility in November 2022 following reports of multiple instances where employees had been bitten, punched, kicked, scratched, and sexually assaulted. Several employees had suffered broken bones, concussions, and wounds, and had to endure regular, and often intense, incidents of workplace violence.

According to OSHA, in 2022 there were 182 reports of alleged incidents of workplace violence at the hospital, and over a 6-month period, 70% of the incidents of workplace violence required a police response. The incidents included a nurse being kicked in the stomach by a patient, a patient throwing a chair at staff members, and a mental health associate suffering a concussion after having their head repeatedly smashed against an air conditioning unit by a patient who refused to be escorted to their room.

OSHA determined that staff members had been allowed to be exposed to physical threats and assaults during routine daily interactions and while providing care, resulting in a citation for a serious violation for failing to provide a workplace free from recognized health and safety hazards that were likely to result in serious physical harm or death. OSHA imposed $15,625 in penalties and made several recommendations on how to improve safety and protect staff members from workplace violence, including the development of a workplace violence program, ensuring doctors were available overnight to prescribe medications to violent patients, and issuing employees with panic alarms.

OSHA said UHS of Delaware has an extensive history of OSHA investigations and violations related to workplace violence as a result of employees not being provided with adequate protection. Earlier this year, a federal administrative law judge affirmed that UHS of Delaware exposed employees to workplace violence in 2019 by providing inadequate protections, and UHS of Delaware was sanctioned for destroying surveillance videos showing workplace violence.

OSHA Fines Miramont Behavioral Health for Documentation Failures

Miramont Behavioral Health, a Middleton, WI-based provider of inpatient and outpatient behavioral health care, has been fined $8,370 by the OSHA following an investigation of an incident where a nurse was accidentally spiked with a needle stick.

The incident occurred in December 2022 and did not result in any loss of work time or patient safety impacts; however, OSHA’s inspection identified safety and health failures resulting in four citations, three of which were serious and related to safety and health risks. The citations included a failure to maintain a proper work injury log, a failure to properly record the needle stick incident in its injury log, and a failure to include certain jobs in its exposure control plan.

All of the citations were fully abated within 24 hours and were mostly related to documentation issues. A spokesperson for Miramont Behavioral Health confirmed that its documentation policy has now been updated and further training has been provided to employees to ensure full compliance in the future. The citations were resolved through an informal settlement with OSHA in June 2023.

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OSHA enforces its standards via inspections and investigations. Not every business subject to OSHA’s safety and health standards can be inspected or investigated simultaneously, so the agency has established a system of priorities. The system of priorities is:

• An imminent danger in the workplace.
• Catastrophes and fatal accidents.
• Complaints of alleged violations.
• Planned inspections at high-hazard workplaces.
• Follow-up inspections to establish if previously cited violations have been corrected.

OSHA regards an imminent danger to be any situation where there is reasonable certainty a risk exists that can be expected to cause death or severe injury before the risk can be eliminated through the normal inspection and enforcement process.

Cases such as these can be brought to OSHA’s attention by an employer or an employee, and are reviewed by an area director before a priority inspection is conducted. In an imminent danger is confirmed, OSHA’s inspectors will request the voluntary removal of the risk and/or endangered employees from exposure to the risk.

If an employer fails to voluntarily remove the risk and/or endangered employees, OSHA can apply to the nearest Federal District Court for appropriate judicial action to correct the situation. Judicial action can consist of an immediate shutdown of the entire operation or the section of the workplace where the reported imminent danger exists.

How Does OSHA Enforce its Standards in Other Cases

Catastrophes resulting in the hospitalization of three or more employees or workplace fatalities are second in OSHA’s system of inspection priorities. In this case, the purpose of the inspection is to determine if an accident is attributable to a violation of OSHA standards and to make recommendations to avoid a reoccurrence of the same event.

While employers are required to report a catastrophic accident to OSHA within eight hours of the event, any employee, local state agency, or other public source can make a complaint alleging a failure of OSHA compliance. If a violation is identified in an inspection following a complaint – or in a planned inspection at a high-hazard workplace – a citation will be issued and the following penalties may apply (note: the penalties applied by state OSHA Plans may differ):

* For a repeated other-than-serious violation that has a $0 penalty, a penalty of $414 will be imposed for the first repeat of the violation, $1,116 for the second repeat of the violation, and $2,232 for the third repeat of the violation. OSHA inspectors can also impose fines of up to $15,625 per violation for an employer failing to post an OSHA violation notice.

Penalties for Employers that are Slow or Fail to Comply

The lowest inspection priority in OSHA’s system of priorities are follow-up inspections to establish if previously cited violations have been corrected. These inspections can follow any type of citation (e.g., serious, other-than-serious, or willful or repeated), and their purpose is to ensure the hazard for which the employer was originally cited has been abated.

Citations allow a certain number of days for an employer to abate a hazard depending on the nature of the hazard and the logistics of abating it. However, if an employer exceeds the time allowed, OSHA inspectors can issue further fines of up to $15,625 per day per violation until the hazard is abated. Employers that fail to abate a hazard or pay OSHA fines can be held personally liable by a court.

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is seeking feedback from small businesses and local government on a new heat standard to protect indoor and outdoor workers from heat-related injuries and illnesses.

In October 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings. OSHA is currently developing a new standard for workplaces that will apply to general industry and the construction, maritime, and agriculture industries to prevent heat-related illness and injuries and OSHA is preparing to launch a heat illness prevention campaign to educate employers and workers about the dangers of working in the heat.

The United States is experiencing rising temperatures and hazards associated with high workplace temperatures are increasing. Illnesses and injuries from exposure to high temperatures are preventable, yet each year, thousands of workers suffer from heat-related illnesses, which in some cases can be fatal.

OSHA will be hosting a series of Small Business Advocacy Review Panel meetings this summer that will be attended by representatives of OSHA, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, and the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

OSHA is seeking feedback from small businesses and local governments on the potential impacts of a new workplace heat standard and is especially interested in receiving feedback from industries that are likely to be most impacted by the heat standard, such as agriculture, construction, landscaping, manufacturing, oil and gas, warehousing, waste management, utilities, and food service, specifically restaurant kitchens.

The review panel meetings will provide businesses with an opportunity to share their current practices for protecting workers from heat-related illnesses and injuries and will allow them to discuss how a new heat standard would impact workplace operations and local business communities.  The feedback gathered will inform the development of the new heat standard.

Further information:

How to participate in the OSHA Heat Standard Review Panel Meetings

OSHA and HIPAA Compliance

OSHA Compliance Checklist

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The mission of OSHA is to ensure safe and healthy working conditions for workers in the United States by setting and enforcing workplace safety and health standards, and by providing training, outreach, education, and assistance to employers. OSHA fulfills its mission by:

• Developing workplace safety and health standards.
• Providing training programs and employer education.
• Enforcing OSHA standards via targeted inspections.
• Facilitating confidential worker complaints.
• Investigating fatalities, catastrophes, and complaints.
• Providing on-site and virtual compliance assistance.
• Mandating injury and illness recordkeeping and reporting.
• Offering grants for non-profit employee training.
• Publishing fact sheets – both online and in print.
• Organizing cooperative programs with labor groups.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was formed as a result of the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970. The mission of OSHA – which operates under the auspices of the Department of Labor – is to protect the rights of workers to safe and healthy working conditions, and reduce the human and economic costs associated with workplace hazards.

The agency focuses its resources on where they can have the greatest impact on reducing injuries, illnesses, and deaths in the workplace. Consequently, whereas OSHA’s initial enforcement strategy was to target problem and high-hazard industries, the strategy has evolved to address risks at specific sites with high injury rates through enforcement action, education, and training.

OSHA generally sets workplace safety and health standards for all industries in the public sector except for those regulated by another federal agency – for example, The Mine Safety and Health Administration. Self-employed workers, family members of farm employees, and public sector employees are also not protected by OSHA standards unless they are included in an OSHA-approved state plan.

You can find a list of OSHA-approved state plans in our OSHA Compliance Checklist, where you will also find information about the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and workers’ rights to file a compliant for non-compliance with OSHA standards. Safety Officers who are unsure about the mission of OSHA or their OSHA compliance obligations should seek professional compliance advice.

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA was created in response to concerns about increasing workplace injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. Since its creation in 1970, workplace injuries and illnesses have reduced by 40 percent, and workplace fatalities by 60 percent.

• OSHA was created as a result of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act), which was signed into law by President Nixon in December 1970.
• The Administration’s primary objective is to reduce human and economic costs attributable to avoidable workplace accidents and illnesses.
• The first OSHA standards were adopted from existing safety standards issued by organizations such as the National Fire Protection Administration.
• Subsequent standards responded to health issues well known to the safety and health community – for example, worker exposure to asbestos.
• Compliance with the standards was initially voluntary, with inspections limited to catastrophic accidents and known significant hazards.
• The enforcement policy was later amended to penalize repeat offenders and companies that willfully placed workers at risk of injury or illness.
• States are permitted to run their own OSHA programs provided state safety and health standards are at least as stringent as federal standards.
• OSHA provides training, outreach, education, and assistance to employers and encourages workers to engage in safety and health-related activities.
• In healthcare, OSHA’s standards help prevent worker exposure to infectious diseases, injuries attributable to patient handling, and workplace violence.
• The creation of OSHA has led to significant improvements in workplace safety and a reduction in work-related injuries, illnesses, and fatalities.

The standards published by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or by a regional OSHA program apply to all private sector employers and all federal government agencies except where workplace safety is regulated by another federal agency – for example, the Department of Energy.

Employees of state and local government agencies are not covered by federal OSHA standards, but may have regional OSHA program protection if they work in a state with an OSHA-approved program. The list of OSHA-approved state programs can be found on our OSHA Compliance Checklist page.

OSHA has the authority to impose financial penalties for non-compliance with any applicable standard – even if non-compliance does not cause an injury, illness, or fatality. Therefore, if you are an individual with responsibility for safety and health in your organization, and you are unsure of your OSHA compliance obligations, it is recommended you seek professional compliance advice.

The post Why was OSHA Created? appeared first on HIPAA Journal.

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.

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.”

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UHS of Delaware Inc. and UHS of Fuller Inc. have been found to have exposed their employees to unacceptable risks from workplace violence at Fuller Hospital in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and subsequently destroyed evidence and failed to comply with their legal discovery obligations.

UHS of Delaware and UHS of Fuller Inc. are subsidiaries of Universal Health Services, which is one of the largest providers of behavioral healthcare services in the United States. Fuller Hospital was inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 2019 in response to complaints from UHS-Delaware and UHS-Fuller employees about insufficient safeguards against workplace violence. There were more than 500 incidents of aggression on hospital employees at Fuller Hospital over a 7-month period in 2019 in which employees were bitten, slapped, punched, kicked, and had their hair ripped out. Several employees suffered repeated concussions in those incidents.

In December 2019, OSHA cited UHS of Delaware Inc. and UHS of Fuller Inc. for exposing employees to workplace violence. The companies contested the citation and the case was tried over a two-week period in July and August 2022 by the Boston Regional Solicitor’s Office. At the trial, employees testified about the injuries they sustained and the unsafe working conditions at the hospital. The employees claimed that they had not been provided with sufficient training and there were inadequate staffing levels. The companies appealed the trial decision to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

In January 2023, Review Commission Administrative Law Judge Carol A. Baumerich affirmed the serious citation, found both companies operated the hospital as a single employer, and determined that the proposed abatement measures were feasible and would significantly reduce the risks to employees from violence in the workplace. The proposed measures include increasing staffing for handling behavioral health emergencies, ensuring new employees receive adequate training, having trained security professionals on all three shifts, providing personal panic alarms to employees, and conducting post-incident debriefings and investigations.

Both companies were also sanctioned for failing to comply with discovery obligations and destroying surveillance video footage of incidents of violence against employees. The companies were ordered to pay OHSA $20,175 in attorneys’ fees. In a separate case, UHS-Fuller and UHS-Delaware were ordered to pay OSHA $30,515 in attorneys’ fees due to the failure to comply with an OSHA-issued subpoena for the surveillance videos.

“When employers do not adequately protect their workers from workplace violence, the U.S. Department of Labor will use all legal tools at our disposal to make them do so,” said Regional Solicitor of Labor Maia Fisher in Boston. “When companies attempt to avoid liability by destroying evidence or keeping it from the department – as they did in this case – we will hold them accountable.”

“Each year, about two million American workers fall victim to workplace violence, which continues to be a growing concern for employers and employees nationwide,” said OSHA Regional Administrator Galen Blanton in Boston. “OSHA requires employers to provide a safe and healthful workplace for all workers covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Employers who do not take all feasible steps to prevent or abate a recognized violence hazard in their workplace can be cited and fined.”

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A U.S. Department of Labor investigation of an Arizona Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) healthcare facility found workers had been put at risk by exposing them to potentially deadly hazards on steam lines. Employees were allowed to work on the steam lines without ensuring they followed the required safety procedures.

Federal agencies such as the VA are required to comply with the same safety and health standards as private sector employers that are covered by the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act and must ensure that employees conduct their work duties safely and are not exposed to grave danger from hazards.

Federal safety inspectors visited the VA’s Prescott facility, operated by the Northern Arizona Veterans Affairs Health Care System, in October 2022 and determined that the facility lacked energy-isolating procedures known as lockout/tagout, which prevents the release of hazardous energy during the maintenance and servicing of steam lines. Employees were found to be using ad-hoc methods that did not meet Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements. The inspectors also determined that the facility had failed to train workers on required safety procedures, thus exposing them to potentially fatal risks.

This is not the first time that a VA facility has failed to ensure proper procedures were followed when working on steam lines. Two years previously, an accident in the workplace at a Veterans Affairs Healthcare System facility in West Haven, CT, ended in tragedy. Two workers lost their lives after suffering fatal burns when working on steam lines. OSHA inspectors found similar failures to ensure safety procedures were followed.

OSHA inspectors determined there had been one willful violation and two repeated violations of health and safety regulations at the Prescott facility and issued three serious notices for exposing employees to burns and potentially fatal injuries. “Federal law requires all employers, public or private, to provide a safe workplace. Management at all Veterans Affairs facilities should review their employee safety and health programs to ensure they comply with industry and OSHA standards for isolating hazardous energy before another tragedy occurs,” said OSHA Area Director T. Zachary Barnett.

The VA has 15 days from receipt of the notices to comply, request a conference with the OSHA area director, or appeal the notices. Private sector companies would be liable to pay financial penalties of up to $315,875 for the violations.

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