August 17, 2005—The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced that its 2005 site-specific targeting (SST) plan will focus on approximately 4,400 high-hazard worksites for unannounced comprehensive inspections over the coming year. OSHA says that its targeted inspection program maximizes the effectiveness of the organization’s inspection resources for the highest benefit to workers and employers.
This year’s program will initially target sites that reported 12 or more injuries or illnesses for every 100 full-time workers resulting in days away from work, restricted work activity, or job transfer (known as the DART rate). The list will also include sites that have a “days away from work injury and illness” (DAFWII) rate of 9 or higher. The program stems from OSHA’s Data Initiative for 2004 that surveyed approximately 80,000 employers to attain injury and illness data for 2003.
OSHA will again inspect nursing homes and personal care facilities, but only the highest 50% rated establishments will be included on the Primary List.
Inspections will focus primarily on ergonomic hazards relating to resident handling; exposure to blood and other potentially infectious materials; exposure to tuberculosis; and slips, trips, and falls.
The agency will also randomly select and inspect about 400 workplaces (with 75 or more employees) across the nation that reported low injury and illness rates for the purpose of reviewing the actual degree of compliance with OSHA requirements. These establishments are selected from those industries with above the national incident DART and DAFWII rates.
Finally, the agency will include on the primary list some establishments that did not respond to the 2004 data survey.
