Jersey City Medical Center Cited For ‘Serious Safety Violations’

HUDSON COUNTY, NJ — Federal inspectors have cited the Jersey City Medical Center for multiple “serious safety violations” related to a workplace accident that resulted in the death of an employee in July.

On Tuesday, federal officials announced that following an inspection at the 355 Grand Street facility, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued one willful and four serious safety citations to the medical center, a member of RWJBarnabas Health.

On June 28, hospital administrators notified federal officials that a worker fell from a ladder as he changed an overhead ballast in a light fixture two days earlier. The worker later died from his injuries on July 17, according to OSHA.

According to OSHA inspectors, the medical center failed to ensure de-energized circuits were locked out, maintain an electrical lockout/tagout program, ensure that only qualified persons worked on live circuits, provide personal protective equipment and ensure workers did not work on live parts.

“This worker’s tragic death was preventable,” Kris Hoffman, director of OSHA’s Parsippany Area Office stated. “Jersey City Medical Center did not have basic lockout/tagout safeguards in place to prevent exposure to electrical hazards, and failed to train its maintenance workers on these safeguards. As a result, the worker sustained an electrical shock while changing the ballast and fell approximately six feet off a ladder and died from his injuries.”

OSHA proposed a $ 174,593 penalty in connection with the citations.

The Jersey City Medical Center has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, request a conference with the agency’s area director or contest the findings before the independent OSHA Review Commission.

The full OSHA citations can be seen here.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

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