OSHA announces inspections of facilities serving COVID-19 patients

This week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced an enforcement memorandum for a short-term increase in highly focused inspections directed at hospitals and skilled nursing facilities that treat or handle COVID-19 patients. By expanding its presence, OSHA aims to ensure continued mitigation to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and future variants of the virus among people working in health care facilities. Follow-up inspections to assess compliance actions will be conducted at sites previously issued citations and at sites where complaints were received but the agency did not conduct in-person inspections. The effort began March 9 and will continue until June 9. (OSHA news release, 3/7/22)