The Poplar Bluff VA hospital has been given until next week to respond to three of four workplace violations the U.S. Department of Labor describes as “serious.”
The John J. Pershing VA Medical Center was notified on Aug. 26 that issues were found relating to work done in a rooftop area without adequate safety protection, a system designed to detect freon leaks in an employee-only work area, and other issues.
The rooftop issue and freon alarm have been addressed, according to staff, and training is being done on other issues.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration gave the VA until Tuesday to abate three of the matters and until Nov. 25 for the fourth.
“We have either corrected or are in the process of correcting the items they identified and there were no veteran or employee reports of accidents or injuries from these findings,” said Angela Smith, public affairs officer. “We take any safety-related situation seriously.”
This is standard oversight procedure for all agencies, Smith said, adding the VA welcomes the feedback of OSHA and other departments.
“If they identify any findings while they are here, we address them,” she said.
According to OSHA documents, the items that need to be addressed by Tuesday include two violations that require creating a procedure that clearly outlines requirements for safety testing a machine. More training of staff needs to be done on these procedures, according to the VA.
The third violation that must be addressed by Tuesday involves methods to detect the presence or release of a hazardous chemical in the work area.
“The inspection found that the employer had a Freon monitor in the chiller room,” states a document signed by William McDonald, area director of the St. Louis OSHA office. “When the monitor detects a leak, an alarm is sounded outside the chiller room. Employees in the chiller room were not made aware if there was a leak since the alarm could not be heard above the nose of the equipment inside the room.”
Additional equipment has been added to allow the alarm to be heard by employees in the chiller room, staff reported.
By November, the facility must also resolve an issue related to roof access.
“Maintenance employees were required to access roof mounted equipment without adequate fall protection,” according to the document from McDonald. “Employees are supplied full body harnesses but there are no anchorage points to tie off to. There is at least one case where there is no ladder supplied and employees are required to climb along the roof edge to access equipment.”
An inspection May 7, found maintenance employees had accessed roof-mounted equipment in areas where there were no guard rails and no anchorage points to attach fall protection.
A safety ladder was installed mid-summer in relation to the roof top issue, according to staff.