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Hospital fined $45,000 for safety violations

Hospital Safety Connection, March 3, 2005

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The Washington state Department of Labor fined Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia $45,000 this week for several workplace safety violations related to a chemical spill, The Olympian reported.

The state began an investigation in August after the hospital's housekeepers filed a complaint. Many of the housekeepers experienced health problems after cleaning a 5-gal spill of formalin, a solution that contains formaldehyde, in July.

The fine was initially set at $107,000. It was reduced after the hospital agreed to provide better training for employees and improve policies for responding to potentially hazardous materials spills.

The state found that the hospital committed many violations of Washington's Industrial Safety and Health Act, including lack of adequate equipment, such as respirators, and training for employees to wipe up the liquid.

"We have a policy that, since the spill, we have gone over with a fine-tooth comb and improved considerably," Deborah Shawver, the hospital's director of public relations, told the Olympian. "The problem back last July is that people did not follow the policy."

At least eight employees became ill after they cleaned up the spill without proper protective equipment.

Since the spill, the hospital has a response team of employees to handle spills on-call 24 hours a day.

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