There are several penalties that have been imposed on the healthcare facility, according to the manager in charge of OSHA standards compliance. First, a penalty of $ 7,000 has been imposed on the facility in a number of occasions due to a serious violation on the OSHA standards leading to the serious injuries or death of some of the hospital employees. Second, the facility has been penalized once for non-serious violation, where it failed to adhere to the safety issues related to employee protection when handling hazard materials that would have resulted to the injuries of the employee. A penalty of $ 7,000 was imposed on the facility for this non-serious violation.
Additionally, the organization was once fined for repeated violation of some of the OSHA standards, especially in the area of employee protection from hazardous materials. A penalty amounting to $ 70,000 was imposed on the facility (Russi et al., 2009). Lastly, due to the high cost associated with compliance with some the OSHA standards, the management at some point willfully violated OSHA standard, and the facility was fined a penalty of $ 5000 for this offense.
It is critical to note that there are a number of activities carried out by the facility manager responsible for ensuring compliance with OSHA standards. One of the activities is to come up with the hazard communication program, where all the employees are informed about the hazards in their respective places of work and measures that they can take to protect themselves from the hazards. The hazard communication is carried out on a monthly basis with an objective of ensuring that employees are aware of changes in the OSHA prevention measure and emergence of new hazards in their areas of work (Russi et al., 2009).
The second activity is organizing training on safety issues for all the facility employees. The employees undergo training on OSHA standards and safety measures after every three months to avoid situation where the facility is penalized for non-compliance (Russi et al., 2009). This aids in reducing cases of non-compliance with OSHA standards among the employees on issues to do with wearing protecting gloves and equipment when working in hazardous areas. Finally, the facility manager inspects every department on a regular basis to ensure that they comply with safety issues, such as immunization of the employees and patient as per the OSHA standard specifications (Russi et al., 2009). The activities carried out by the manager reduce the high cases of OSHA standard violation and enhances the safety of employees and patients visiting the facility at any given time.
The facility trains its employees on a number of issues to ensure compliance. First, they are trained about hazardous materials. Second, they get training on safety measures that they should comply with in the line of duty. In addition, training on changes of OSHA standard and the compliance required is carried out regularly to ensure that the facility is always complaint with OSHA regulations.
A number of OSHA standards apply to this organization. They include general requirement standards, respiratory protection, bloodborne pathogens, ionizing radiation, hazard communication, face and eye protection, ethylene oxide, formaldehyde and standards of exposure to hazards while working in laboratories (OSHA, 2016).
In this case, the hospital management should provide the support needed by allocating resources for compliance, because it has incurred huge costs for failure to comply with OSHA standards. Also, the facility needs to come with a code of conduct outlining penalties for employees who fails to comply with OSHA standards in their line of duty. As a facility manager I would implement programs motivating employees to comply with OSHA standards for their own safety, such as recognizing the best employees who are compliant with OSHA safety regulations.
References
OSHA. (2016). Safety and Health Topics | Healthcare - Standards and Enforcement. Retrieved 16 February 2016, from https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/healthcarefacilities/standards.html
Russi, M., Buchta, W. G., Swift, M., Budnick, L. D., Hodgson, M. J., Berube, D., & Kelafant, G. A. (2009). Guidance for occupational health services in medical centers. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 51(11), e1-e18.
