OSHA in a news release said the agency issued UHS of Westwood Pembroke (Mass.), a mental healthcare company doing business as LTC, a notification for failure to abate violation related to workplace violence last June. OSHA said the notification came after “a serious violation related to the same hazards that federal safety and health inspectors found on May 19, 2015.”
According to the agency, OSHA and the employer reached a formal settlement agreement last year after the 2015 inspection. That agreement included implementing efforts toward workplace violence prevention, among other provisions.
OSHA said a follow-up inspection opened early this year “after Lowell Treatment Center failed to provide documentation to show that it had implemented a workplace violence program, and the agency’s Andover Area Office received a complaint alleging employees remained at risk.” Overall, the agency said the follow-up inspection revealed LTC did now comply with various provisions of the 2016 agreement, and that “the risks for workers to suffer fatal injury or serious harm still existed,” even though LTC had previous citations and worker injuries. OSHA said it also cited LTC for violations related to recordkeeping.
“Our inspectors found that employees throughout the Lowell Treatment Center continued to be exposed to incidents of workplace violence that could have been greatly reduced had the employer fully implemented the settlement agreement,” Galen Blanton, OSHA’s regional administrator in Boston, said.
Becker’s Hospital Review could not immediately reach the hospital for comment Monday. Lowell Sun could not reach a representative for Arbour Health System, the Massachusetts branch of King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services that operates LTC, for comment over the weekend.
But Arbour Health spokesperson Judy Merel told the New England Center for Investigative Reporting that OSHA’s report was “inaccurate” in an email and said LTC is “committed to the safety and well-being of our patients, their families and our staff,” according to the report.
OSHA said UHS of Westwood Pembroke told the agency it plans to contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
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