OSHA settlement hailed as ergonomic victory
OSHA settlement hailed as ergonomic victory
Nursing home chain agrees to use devices
The nation’s largest nursing home chain settled a decade-old ergonomics complaint with the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) by agreeing to provide patient-handling equipment and conduct training at 265 nursing homes in federal OSHA jurisdictions.
While a victory for OSHA, the case — U.S. Dept. of Labor v. Beverly Enterprises Inc. — illustrates the difficult history of ergonomics regulation. During the years that went by while the case of Beverly Enterprises of Fort Smith, AR, was under review, OSHA tried and failed to create two comprehensive ergonomics rules. As Hospital Employee Health goes to press, OSHA was expected to announce a new approach to ergonomics that would not involve a new regulatory standard.
Meanwhile, as the Beverly case inched through its appeals, the company launched a major ergo-nomics effort at all of its 475 facilities. The OSHA citations weren’t the impetus, asserts Jim Griffith, senior vice president of corporate communications. "The reality is that we spent $17 million [on ergo-nomics] because we thought it would improve patient care, reduce our liability costs, [and] make it easier for our [staff]," he says. "And frankly, in a highly competitive marketplace, it might be an advantage in terms of attracting employees."
OSHA inspected five Beverly Enterprises nursing homes in Pennsylvania in 1991, in response to complaints from the Washington, DC-based Service Employees International Union (SEIU). "[T]he company’s injury and illness records revealed numerous musculoskeletal [disorder] [MSD] injuries sustained by nursing assistants that resulted in extensive lost work time and restricted work duty," OSHA says. Citations were based on OSHA’s general duty clause, which says that employers have an obligation to provide a safe workplace.
In 1994, an administrative law said OSHA had not identified a "recognized hazard" when it cited the company. In 2000, five years later, a full review commission overturned that ruling and sent the case back to another administrative law judge. "This agreement represents a major commitment to eliminate serious injuries and provide these employees the needed protection," OSHA Administrator John L. Henshaw said in a statement.
To Bill Borwegen, MPH, SEIU’s occupational health and safety director, the settlement demonstrates the kind of impact OSHA could have if it used its regulatory powers more aggressively. "The Beverly decision is a great example of how government intervention can have tremendous impact on the working lives of health care workers. The fact that the largest nursing home chain in the country is on board publicly with ergonomic interventions to protect their work force emphasizes the need for the government to play a more active role to protect health care workers from this epidemic [of MSD injuries]," he says. "If we’re not going to have an ergonomics standard, then we have to have a much more aggressive program to use the general duty clause."
As a group, nursing assistants, orderlies, and attendants suffer more work-related MSD injuries than any other occupation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Griffith suggested that the citations actually stemmed from "union agitation." The company easily could have resolved the complaints by establishing ergonomic interventions at just five facilities, but instead chose to fight the citations and implement interventions nationwide, he says. "We did not think the original complaints were justified. Separate and apart from that, we took actions that we thought made sense for the business."
In the settlement, Beverly Enterprises agreed to buy friction-reducing devices, two-handled transfer belts, lift walkers, and mechanical lifts for each facility. Each facility will designate a manager who is responsible for implementing the ergonomics program, and the staff training will be verified using "Skills Checkoff Sheets."
Beverly also agreed to file semiannual reports to OSHA and SEIU for a five-year period.
(A copy of the settlement is available at www.iwpextra.com/OS02007.PDF.)
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