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OSHA News Release
2002 - 09/17/2002 - OSHA BEGINS ENFORCEMENT UNDER NURSING HOME NATIONAL EMPHASIS PROGRAM National Outreach Efforts Will Continue
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TRADE NEWS RELEASE
September 17, 2002
Contact: Frank Meilinger
Phone: (202) 693-1999

OSHA BEGINS ENFORCEMENT UNDER NURSING HOME NATIONAL EMPHASIS PROGRAM
National Outreach Efforts Will Continue

WASHINGTON - Nursing and personal care facilities with high injury and illness rates will be the targets of OSHA inspections under a new National Emphasis Program (NEP), which is intended to reduce the industry's high injury and illness rate.

Beginning September 17, OSHA will begin conducting targeted inspections 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. The enforcement component follows a sixty-day outreach initiative supporting the NEP, which was announced on July 15.

"Our outreach campaign will continue as we educate both employers and workers all across the country," said OSHA Administrator John Henshaw. "However, it's time to take the next step and begin our enforcement efforts on specific facilities that have injury and illness rates almost five times the average for general industry."

The primary focus of our attention will be on the hazards most prevalent in the industry, including:
  • Ergonomics primarily relating to resident handling;

  • Exposure to blood and other potentially infectious materials;

  • Exposure to tuberculosis; and

  • Slips, trips, and falls.

Outreach efforts will continue throughout the enforcement period of the NEP. Initiatives will involve training and information on workplace violence as well as the hazards targeted in the NEP. Area offices will continue working with local nursing home associations, individual nursing facilities, local safety councils, unions, state consultation programs, and colleges and universities.

Examples of upcoming programs include a one-day training course in November, sponsored by OSHA's Savannah, Ga. Area Office, which will focus on hazards addressed in the NEP. The Wilmington Area Office is scheduled to appear at the Delaware Health Care Facilities Association conference on September 19, 2002, and the Philadelphia regional office will send letters to nursing homes, explaining the NEP and the state consultation program.

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This news release text is on the Internet World Wide Web at http://www.osha.gov. Information on this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 693-1999.
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