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Nursing Home eTool
Scope
The nursing home industry is one of America's fastest growing industries. Today nursing homes and personal care
facilities employ approximately 1.8 million workers at 21,000 worksites. It is estimated by the year 2005, industry employment levels
will rise to 2.4 million workers.
According to the
Bureau
of Labor Statistics, in 2000 nursing and personal care facilities reported 192,200 nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses to their
personnel. Nursing home facilities ranked third highest in nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses among U.S. industries with 100,000 or
more injuries and illnesses, behind Hospitals, and Eating and Drinking Places. The nursing home industry injury incident rate is 13.9 injuries
and illnesses per 100 full-time workers. This is more than double the incident rate of 6.1 for industry as a whole.
During October 2000 through September 2001, OSHA performed 997 inspection activities in
SIC code 805- Nursing and Personal
Care Facilities. The most frequently cited violations were bloodborne pathogens, uncontrolled electrical hazards, Lockout/Tagout, hazard
communication, medical services and first aid, recordkeeping, egress and machine guarding.
OSHA is providing this computerized graphical Nursing Home eTool to help employers identify and address potential
occupational hazards in the nursing home industry. This will be done through a comprehensive safety and health program approach.
This eTool will help employers in developing and implementing engineering and work practice controls which comply with OSHA requirements
and could be incorporated into a facility's safety and health plan to reduce the hazards of nursing home work and improve worker safety.
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