The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) has included nursing facilities in their Site-Specific Targeting 2011 (“SST-11”) Plan for facilities with high rates of injuries and illnesses experienced by workers. The SST-11 selects individual facilities for inspection identified through the 2010 Data Initiative survey. OSHA will target facilities with specific Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred (“DART”) rates and Days Away from Work Injury and Illness (“DAFWII”) case rates. Those facilities with a DART rate at or above 16.0 or a DAFWII rate at or above 13.0 will be selected for the primary inspection round. This is approximately 300 facilities. After the primary inspection round, OSHA may move on to facilities with lower DART and/or DAFWII rates. Multiple rounds of inspections are required due to a large number of facilities that reported high rates in the 2010 Data Initiative survey.
Inspections in these facilities will focus specifically on ergonomic stressors; exposure to blood and other potentially infectious materials; exposure to tuberculosis; and slips, trips, and falls. When additional hazards come to the attention of the compliance officer, the scope of the inspection may be expanded to include those hazards.
Should you have any questions, please contact:
Todd Selby at 317.977.1440 or tselby@hallrender.com;
Brian Jent at 317.977.1402 or bjent@hallrender.com; or
David Bufford at 502.568.9368 or dbufford@hallrender.com,
or your regular Hall Render attorney.
