Please reply to each discussion post with 1 paragraph

Ariana Alvarez 

Week 3 Discussion 2

COLLAPSE

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According to their site, Cal-Osha is a branch responsible for the safety of workers. In further detail, Cal-Osha is responsible for accident investigations in the workplace, Programmed Inspections, special orders and actions. The ability to prevent and prohibit the use of possible hazard, Cal-Osha is also responsible for permits, certifications, approvals and various classifications (Cal-Osha, 2021).

For my citation choice, I opted for one issued to Kaiser Permanente Hospitals on 1/4/2021

In the citation, the state of California (Cal-Osha) was cited as Repeat Regulatory Violation

In other words, once again Kaiser Permanente the employer failed to immediately report to the Division of Safety and Health when an employee was hospitalized with COVID-19 for four days.

According to Cal-Osha regulations Employers are responsible to immediately report any serious injury or illness, or death of an employee occurring in a place of employment or in connection with any employment. In Accordance with the citation Kaiser Foundation Hospitals were fined $20000.00 for the failure to report the incident immediately (Cal-Osha, 2021).

When I read the citation, I was initially surprised, by what happened but after reviewing the events from when the pandemic first began, I realize this was not surprising at all.

As an employee working in the medical field during a pandemic I can see where my personal risk to contract Covid-19 was much higher working directly with covid patients. I also, can also attest, that by the time, I was deployed to work in the hospital PPE was widely available to us, and not once did I feel my safety was compromise. But in speaking to the staff who where there from the beginning, I was told how lucky I was to show up when I did. Considering they had limited PPE and covid transmission risk was very possible when caring for patients due to this.

 

Cal-Osha. (2021, April 21). Cal-Osha Enforcement Branch. Retrieved from www.dir.ca.gov: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/Enforcementpage.htm

Cal-Osha. (2021). Citation and Notification of Penalty: Kaiser Foundation Hospitals. Cal-Osha, Industrial Relations. Oakland: State of California : Department of Industrial Relations: Division of Occupational Health. doi:https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/coronavirus/citations/01.04.2021-Kaiser-Foundation-KaiserPermanenteSanLeandro_1479549.pdf

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Angelica Chaudry 

Discussion 2

COLLAPSE

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Cal-OSHA is part of the Department of Industrial Relations, The role of Cal-OSHA is to ensure safety, protect and improve the health of working individuals as well as passengers in California. Plainly, Cal-OSHA is important in our everyday lives, they are the ones who make sure that citizens can safely ride in elevators, tramways, and for our enjoyment, amusement parks. Cal-OSHA issues permits, licenses, certifications, and approvals and set standards for the many setting that we may encounter. 

The citations that I selected from the list to evaluate is the Sutter Health DBA Alta Bates Summit Medical Center - Berkeley. This citation involves six total violations and the proposed penalties $114,750. The violation was that prior to and during the course of inspection from July 2020 to present, the employer failed to maintain it’s Aerosol Transmissible Disease (ATD) Exposure Control Plan. Not adhering to the plan can result in extreme exposure to COVID -19. Another violation is that the employees do not provide sufficient protection to limit exposure to COVID-19, there were instances that employees were providing care but were not wearing respirators, or any protective gear at all. I’m honestly surprised that this happened in a medical center of all places. I know there has been a lot of conversation about the lack of protective gear in medical facilities since the start of COVID-19 and it’s absolutely deplorable that employees are risking their lives and exposing themselves as well as others. 

Cal/OSHA. (n.d.). Department of industrial relations: Cal/OSHA.  https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/  

Dir.ca.gov. 2021. [online] Available at: < https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/Coronavirus/Citations/03.24.2021-Sutter-Health-DBA-Alta-Bates-Summit-Medical-Center-Berkeley_1485894.pdf > [Accessed 21 April 2021].

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