Columbus Workers Comp Attorneys Question Conduct at Mental Hospital

A mental hospital facility in California is facing fines for exposing workers to hazards by failing to protect them from patient assaults, according to the Los Angeles Times. Officials from the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA)inspected the Central Coast’s Astacadero State Hospital due to a high number of worker injuries caused by patients.

Officials determined the hospital failed to control access to parts of the hospital, failed to update alarm systems, failed to improve its alarm system and failed to provide adequate security personnel. Cal/OSHA also cited the hospital for erasing names of injured employees in incident reports. Proposed fines total $27,000.

Officials have been paying extra attention to mental health facilities after Donna Gross, a psychiatric technician at Napa State Hospital, was strangled to death by a patient.

The most disturbing revelation from this inspection is the facility erasing names from incident reports. That conduct is indicative of some sort of cover up and must be taken very seriously.

Please contact our firm for more workers comp information.

Larrimer & Larrimer, LLC—Columbus Workers Comp Attorneys