650 East Indian School Road,
Phoenix,
85012
Arizona,
United States
1) Employees in the emergency department are not provided with adequate supplies of facemasks for the number of employees and the duration of the work shifts. Only 150 facemasks are provided each day for use by the over 70 employees who work in the emergency department in a 24hr period. 2) Employees in the emergency department are not provided with adequate supplies of N95s for the duration of the work shifts. Employees who elect to wear an N95 as facemask for added protection have to request the N95s through the medical supplies department and are only provided with five (5) N95s at the start of the work week, for use during the entire week at the rate of one per day. 3) N95s are only provided in one make and size. The smaller sizes needed by some of the emergency department staff who have requested them are not available, so a proper fit is not achieved during use. 4) Some emergency room employees are purchasing their own N95s in for use due to the limited availability and size options provided by the hospital. While Powered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPR) are required for interactions with known and suspected COVID cases, employees in the emergency department are electing to wear N95s for added protection due to routinely interacting with unconfirmed COVID cases during triage and behavioral health screening. 5) The ventilation in the emergency department does not include HEPA filters for all rooms where COVID patients are placed, and the air is recirculated throughout the building. 6) The building ventilation and filtration is not appropriate for the removal of contaminants from the air. This is resulting in construction dust from adjacent work areas entering the emergency department through the ventilation system. 7) Workers who are using PAPRs are exposed to black colored contaminants on the filter before the filters are changed out. 8) Employees and management in the emergency department have not been trained on the proper precautions to take when changing and disposing of used PAPR filters.
Alleged Hazards: 4, Employees Exposed: 125
Source: Osha.gov | Receipt Date: 2021-11-17
