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State regulators fined Kaiser Permanente $ 55,350 for security breaches at his Santa Rosa medical center, alleging that Sonoma County’s largest healthcare provider failed to take adequate measures to prevent COVID-19 from spreading through its workforce.
The fines, which are disputed by Kaiser, come from a six-month investigation launched last year by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health that found the HMO had failed to properly train employees to protect themselves against airborne pathogens and failed to alert workers who had been exposed to the coronavirus.
Cal / OSHA alleged that Kaiser did not thoroughly investigate these exposures, which took place in the emergency department and on the first floor where people with COVID-19 were receiving care. Kaiser employees were given inadequate protective equipment, including air-purifying respirators “with faulty face shields that were held together with duct tape,” according to the November 20 quote.
Kaiser Permanente immediately filed an appeal and denied some of the allegations, saying they date back to the early days of the pandemic, when certain federal and state regulations were not yet in place.
“It is misleading to interpret these quotes to signal any serious ongoing breach of Kaiser Permanente’s current public health guidelines,” the company said in a statement provided by a spokesperson on Friday. “In fact, these quotes mostly stem from allegations much earlier in the pandemic, as health care systems, including ours, grapple with national shortages and ever-changing public health directions. evolution. “
California regulators have reported more workplace safety violations at Kaiser Permanente facilities than any other healthcare employer in the state, according to analysis released by CalMatters, a nonprofit news organization based in Sacramento. , resulting in fines of nearly $ 500,000.
State inspectors have found instances of inadequate training on aerial hazard protocols, dilapidated equipment and failures to report COVID-19 outbreaks at Kaiser’s facilities statewide. In many cases, Cal / OSHA has responded to complaints as some investigations have started after employees were hospitalized with COVID-19, according to a spokesperson for the agency.
The biggest fine, $ 87,500, was imposed on Kaiser San Leandro Medical Center. The facility has repeatedly failed to notify Cal / OSHA when employees have been hospitalized for COVID-19, according to the quote.
The Santa Rosa Medical Center had the fifth highest fine among 12 Kaiser facilities cited by state regulators. He followed facilities in San Leandro, Oakland, Antioch and San Jose, where fines included a fine of $ 43,000 after at least 60 employees fell ill after a colleague who later tested positive for the coronavirus Wore an inflatable Christmas tree costume to the ER.
Kaiser Permanente, in an email, said the violations stemmed from complaints filed by advocacy groups that “were trying to file complaints against OSHA as part of their campaign to advocate for change.”
The Cal / OSHA inspection involving Kaiser Santa Rosa Medical Center was opened on May 6 and continued until November 5. All violations took place “before and during the course of the inspection,” according to the document. The violations could have been observed at any time or at any time during that period, a Cal / OSHA spokesperson said.
All four quotes indicate that in some cases the company did not respond well to exposure to the virus in the workplace, did not properly train staff to protect themselves from airborne pathogens, failed to provide appropriate instructions on the use of respirators and failed to properly screen patients and staff. enter its facilities.
The most serious quote concerned the company’s procedures for workplace exposures. Cal / OSHA reported that officials at the Santa Rosa Medical Center had not investigated cases of exposure at its facilities. The company also failed to notify employees “who had significant exposures to COVID-19 cases and suspected cases, and to provide post-exposure medical services to those employees,” state regulators said. .
This citation alone results in a penalty of $ 18,000.
The timing of the violations would be critical to understanding what they mean, according to Laura Rosenthal, a Santa Rosa lawyer specializing in workers’ compensation law.
A healthcare company’s failure to notify employees of possible exposure should be a serious concern for any worker or patient, Rosenthal sadly.
“This is all fixable,” said Rosenthal, who read the state’s citation report. “My biggest concern would be whether they fixed them, not so much the fines, but did they solve these problems?”
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