Workers' Compensation

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

OSHA cites Bergen Regional Medical Center after 8 employees assaulted or threatened by patients

n a three-month period this year, health care workers at Bergen Regional Medical Center LP in Paramus NJ were victims of violent patients in eight incidents, including one in which a nurse suffered a laceration and bruises attempting to stop an attack on a patient.

Following a worker's complaint, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspected the facility and found eight incidents of workplace violence from Feb. 22, 2015, through June 12. OSHA cited the facility on August 18 for one general duty clause citation for failing to keep the workplace free of hazards.

Employees reported incidents that involved patients barricading workers in a room, threatening them and exposing them to bloodborne pathogens. Several employees experienced being bit, punched, kicked and threatened by patients.

"Bergen Regional Medical Center's management recognized workplace hazards, but lacked adequate procedures to prevent employee exposure," said Lisa Levy, director of OSHA's Hasbrouck Heights Area Office. "With so many incidents, it's clear that this facility's workplace violence program is ineffective and should be improved immediately to protect employees and ensure a safe workplace."

OSHA issued one repeated citation for incorrectly recording workplace injuries on the OSHA 300A illness and injury reporting form. Proposed penalties total $13,600.

In June, the agency expanded use of its enforcement resources in hospitals and nursing homes to focus on workplace violence, one of the most common causes of injuries among healthcare workers. Guidelines for preventing workplace violence for health and social service workers are available at https://www.osha.gov/Publications/osha3148.pdf

Bergen Regional Medical Center is one of the nation's largest hospitals, providing long-term, behavioral health and acute care in northern New Jersey. With more than 1,070 beds, it is also one of the state's largest licensed nursing homes.

Bergen Regional Medical Center requested an informal conference with OSHA's area director after receiving the citations.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Computerized X-ray Interpretation to Evaluate Spinal Ligamentous Injuries

Diagnosing and quantifying spinal ligament pain in workers' compensation claims has historically been a challenge to both the medical and legal communities. Now a recently published study reports that through computer assisted analysis a computerized measurement can be obtained that can assist in accurately diagnosing and grading of ligament injuries.

"Spinal Ligament injury is well documented to be one the most common injuries in a trauma. It is also well documented that, depending upon the grade (seriousness) of the injury, they can take up to 2 years to heal and have different treatment protocols. Yet it seems few doctors attempt to accurately grade the injury according to medical guidelines even where specific guidelines exist. The crude and varying methods to assess the injury provided little consensus. This study shows that precise accurate grading of spinal ligament injury can be best obtained by advanced computerized methods for measuring x-rays, while conforming to current AMA injury guidelines. One Hundred random cases of spinal injury were assessed by usual visual inspection of stress x-rays by radiologists, then re-assessed by computer measurement.

"Significant spinal ligament injury was accurately revealed by computer measurement that was missed by the standard radiological reads.

"Assessing spinal ligament injury by computer measurement significantly improves diagnosis and grading of ligament injury.

Click here to read Brownstein SP, Jefferey Cronk DC, Joseph Cioffi BA. Evaluation of Spinal Ligamentous Injuries using Computerized X-rayInterpretation. Orthop Rheumatol Open Access J. 2015;1(1): 555551.

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Joint Employment: Workers' Compensation's New Frontier In The New Shared Economy

Last week the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a decision that may have far reaching impact on how "joint employment" is interpreted in workers' compensation cases. Under the doctrine of "joint employment" an employee may be considered an employee of two employers and the ultimate responsibility maybe passed to franchisor under both, The Right to Control or The Nature of the Work, tests.

Federal Court Civil Action Stayed Pending Criminal Case

A civil action instituted by LM Insurance Corporation was stayed against a defendant employer pending a Federal criminal action. The application to stay the Federal civil action was made by the employer to the court following the issuance of multiple Grand Jury Subpoenas and the execution of a Search and Seizure Warrant against the defendant employer in his home and place of business.

NLRB Rejects Northwestern University Football Payers' Bid to Unionize

Ryan Field, Northwestern's 49,000 seat football stadium. ‪

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The NLRB has rejected a bid by the football players at Northwestern University to unionize. The decision, ironically, did not decide whether or not the football scholarship players were employees.

Senator Gillibrand: We Have a Moral Obligation to Care for 9/11 Heroes, Survivors & Their Families

As the Zadroga Act slowly journeys to expiration, Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) declared that, “We Have a Moral Obligation to Continue to Provide the Critically Needed Care and Compensation That Our 9/11 Heroes, Survivors and Their Families Deserve."