Covid-19 OSHA Complaint, UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE PEACE CENTER, 2020 NEWBURG RD, LOUISVILLE, KY, 40205, USA

2020 Newburg Road, Louisville, 40205 Kentucky, United States

1) Vulnerable patients with psychosis seeking help are being injured physically and at times sexually by other patients who are predators and face no repercussions and these same patients are repeatedly admitted to hospital. August 28th- 43 year old female with psychosis and no prior psychiatric hx, placed on adult unit. patient's husband brought her in. Unit had low staff, so patients could not be monitored frequently. 25 year old man with no psychosis but with borderline personality and previous hx of injuring other patients and staff, came into the female's room and began to punch pt repeatedly. Female suffered broken jaw and multiple contusions. 25 year old faced no repercussions for behavior. Female went to medical hospital. 25 year old man's doctor did not see him the next day, per nursing staff, but claimed he saw patient on dictation when all he would do was read off the patient's initial assessment done by the admission department, no statement about incident. This same patient has injured many workers and patients in past, his doctor allows many other patients as long as they have insurance, like him on adult units without even visiting these patients. Doctor will dictate that he saw patient, but patient denies ever seeing the doctor and the staff does not see the doctor visit the patient. Many patients and staff have been injured due to this practice. Floor staff can be interviewed about this, risk management and upper management will protect themselves and doctor, at the expense of more staff and patients being injured. This specific case happened august 28th and 29th, after the labor department had already requested an internal investigation. The hazard is ongoing and every unit is at risk. 2) The legality of having a minor on an adult unit is unknown; a minor was grievously injured on the adult unit. An 18 year old who was still in school was placed on an adult unit with administrations okay. Patient was then punched in the face by an adult patient and he required stitches and was sent to a medical hospital. Since then, a 17 year old was placed on the same adult unit, a day after a 43 year old woman was assaulted and the patient who assaulted her was still on the unit and not visited by the physician. So 2 under age patients. The 18 year old was injured in february or march 2020. The 17 year old was on the unit august 29th and 30th. The hazard is ongoing and located at 1 south. Staff members have requested the under age patients not to be on adult units, but they over ridden by the on call administrator. 3) Medical equipment is outdated. Suction machines frequently break during medical emergencies. Oxygen saturation machines are not on every unit and are hard to come by when needed. Oxygen tanks are only located on floor 2 and are not always brought to emergencies. This hazard happens frequently, is ongoing, and is hospital-wide. 4) COVID exposure, poor organization on COVID management. Upper management will not use recommendations from nurse practitioners. There have been several outbreaks of covid that are under reported. Sometimes patients are allowed to come to units after they refuse temperature checks or a proper covid screening. Staff who are assigned to work only on covid units will be pulled to non covid units to work. Workers who work with vulnerable children have traveled out of state, do quarantine, and will be allowed to work on these units again. This has been ongoing since March and is hospital-wide.


Source: Osha.gov | Receipt Date: 2020-08-31