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Law360 (October 5, 2020, 5:12 PM EDT) -- The Occupational Health and Safety Administration has cited 37 establishments for COVID-19 violations since the pandemic began, and nearly all of those have been health care companies or assisted living facilities, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Labor's workplace safety arm.
OSHA said Friday that it had levied $484,069 in proposed fines in connection with the COVID citations, which were for violations such as failing to provide training on respirator use or personal protective equipment and failuire to report injuries, illnesses or fatalities. Nine of the citations had been previously announced.
The 28 newly announced citations make clear that health care companies and assisted living facilities are responsible for the most known violations of OSHA's COVID-19 guidelines. Only a small number of citations have gone to other types of facilities, including two food processing companies.
Friday's expanded list included facilities in six states: Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, New Jersey, New York and Texas. All of these citations appeared to be for health care or mental health care companies or assisted living homes.
More than half the newly disclosed establishments — 16 of them — are in New Jersey. The highest proposed penalties among those are to Hackensack Meridian Health System in North Bergen and Hackensack Meridian Health Inc. in Edison, both of which face $25,061 fines for respiratory protection and recording criteria violations.
Another facility that is part of the Hackensack Meridian Health network, which has 17 hospitals and more than 500 other facilities in New Jersey, according to its website, has previously faced an OSHA citation related to COVID-19.
In an emailed statement to Law360 on Monday, a spokesperson for Hackensack Meridian Health said the network will be "fighting" the allegations.
"Despite our extraordinary response, like many health care facilities across the nation, we have received citations regarding team member protections at our facilities in Edison and North Bergen. We are aggressively fighting these accusations," the spokesperson said. "We remain committed to protecting our heroes on the front lines and are taking proactive steps to ensure we have an adequate supply of [personal protective equipment] in the months ahead."
New York is home to the second-highest number of establishments on the new list, with six.
Those citations include a proposed penalty of $13,494 to Jewish Home Lifecare, Home Assistance Personnel Inc., better known as the New Jewish Home, a nonprofit health care system that received media attention last spring when refrigerator trucks appeared outside its facilities to serve as temporary morgues. It faces respiratory protection violations.
In Connecticut, OSHA cited mental health facility Natchaug Hospital Inc. $13,494 for respiratory protection and recording criteria violations. In Georgia, Arbor Management Services LLC, the entity behind Arbor Company Senior Living, faces $13,494 in proposed penalties for a respiratory protection violation. And in Texas, health care company Crothall Healthcare Inc. is facing a $2,121 penalty for a recording violation.
The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs in Indianapolis faces citations for respiratory protection and general violations, although none of those citations included penalties.
A spokesman for the VA in Indiana pushed back against the citations in an email to Law360 on Monday and pointed out that the complaints date to the spring.
"These OSHA reviews are misleading because they attempt to judge six-month-old actions that occurred at the start of the pandemic by current COVID-19 standards," said spokesman Richard Griffith. "Here are the facts: During the pandemic, Indianapolis VA Medical Center employees have provided life-saving care to 500 COVID patients while adhering to safety practices that have limited its current COVID employee infection rate to zero."
Griffith added, "Indianapolis VA Medical Center has always followed CDC guidelines with respect to COVID-19 testing, treatment and prevention."
The newly announced citations join a list of those OSHA has previously disclosed, including for Christus Shreveport-Bossier Health System in Louisiana and Smithfield Packaged Meats Corp. in South Dakota.
OSHA faced criticism last spring over its investigations and enforcement of COVID-19 complaints. The agency issued its first citation related to the pandemic in May, even though it had by then received more than 4,500 complaints.
The DOL inspector general is now reviewing OSHA's COVID-19 response.
"Employers are and will continue to be responsible for providing a workplace free of known health and safety hazards," a DOL spokesperson said in an email to Law360. "OSHA has preexisting requirements and standards that not only remain in place and enforceable, but also apply to protecting workers from the coronavirus."
The spokesperson added, "Since February 1, 2020, OSHA inspections alone have helped to ensure more than 622,000 workers are protected from COVID-19."
Spokespeople for the other four facilities named in this article were not immediately available to comment.
--Additional reporting by Braden Campbell, Hailey Konnath and Mike LaSusa. Editing by Stephen Berg.
Update: This story has been updated with additional comment from the Department of Labor.
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