Nursing Home OSHA Alert

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Created on Tuesday, 03 September 2002 02:40

Written by Staff

WASHINGTON –- OSHA announced a new National Emphasis Program (NEP) to focus outreach efforts and inspections on specific hazards in nursing and personal care facilities with high injury and illness rates.  The program will focus outreach efforts and inspections primarily on hazards most prevalent in the facilities, including: ergonomics primarily related to resident handling;

"Exposure to blood and other potentially infectious materials; exposure to tuberculosis; and elips, trips, and falls. Resident handling, and slips, trips and falls account for the majority of injuries suffered by nursing home workers"

The National Emphasis Program will focus OSHA's resources on those nursing and personal care facilities that have 14 or more injuries or illnesses resulting in lost work days or restricted activity for every 100 full-time workers. OSHA is planning to inspect approximately 1,000 of these facilities under the new NEP.

Nursing homes is one of the industries earmarked for emphasis in OSHA's strategic plan. OSHA first implemented a seven-state initiative in 1996 to address injury and illness concerns in nursing homes and personal care facilities. That initiative was absorbed into the agency's site-specific targeting inspection program until this year.

About 9,000 of the approximate 33,000 nursing homes in the United States were asked to report their 2000 injury and illness data to OSHA last year.