On April 7th LeadingAge submitted a comment letter to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, with feedback on a possible future rule related to incidents of workplace violence perpetrated by patients/residents/clients and visitors toward employees in health care and social assistance settings. LeadingAge’s letter specifically said that OSHA should not duplicate existing requirements and must be general rather than overly prescriptive since aging services organizations differ vastly according to size, setting, and the population served. At this stage OSHA has not issued a proposed regulation. Rather, the agency has developed a framework that shows its current thinking about provisions a future rule could include, which it recently brought forward for review and discussion through a Small Business Advocacy Review (SBAR) Panel. An article about this OSHA initiative, with a link to our comment letter, is available here.
