The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited home health, hospice and personal care provider Elara Caring for failing to provide adequate safeguards to protect visiting nurse Joyce Grayson from workplace violence. Grayson, a licensed practical nurse, was killed last Oct. 28 while providing a home health visit for a client living in a halfway house in Willimantic, CT.
The DOL disclosed this week that its OSHA division cited New England Home Care, where Grayson worked, and Jordan Health Care Inc., which both do business as Elara Caring, with a “Willful-Serious” citation. Elara Caring faces up to $163,627 in penalties resulting from the citation. The entities also received an “Other-than-Serious” citation for failing to provide copies of the injury and illness records within four business hours.
Elara Caring described OSHA’s citation charging the company with providing a lack of workplace safety as “unwarranted.”
“The citation that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued to the company is unwarranted, and we intend to contest it vigorously,” a company spokesperson told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. “Connecticut’s Department of Correction, Board of Pardons and Parole and Judicial Branch determined that the patient who allegedly murdered New England Home Care Inc. nurse Joyce Grayson was safe for reentry into the community. Post-release, state authorities were responsible for monitoring and managing the patient’s activities. The death of Joyce Grayson was a tragedy, and we continue to grieve with the family.”
At the time of Grayson’s death, Elara Caring offered a memorial statement, which pointed out the “many safeguards” the company had in place to protect workers. According to OSHA, these safeguards were not enough.
“Elara Caring failed its legal duty to protect employees from workplace injury by not having effective measures in place to protect employees against a known hazard and it cost a worker her life,” Charles McGrevy, the OSHA area director for Hartford, Connecticut, said in a statement. “For its employees’ well-being, Elara must develop, implement and maintain required safeguards such as a comprehensive workplace violence prevention program. Workplace safety is not a privilege; it is every worker’s right.”
This workplace violence prevention program McGrevy referenced must include the establishment of a workplace violence safety committee, training and education initiatives, resources for impacted employees, recordkeeping, solicitation of employee feedback and hazard prevention measures, according to OSHA.
OSHA also said Elara Caring could have mitigated the danger that employees faced by conducting root cause analyses on violent workplace incidents, performing background checks on clients prior to home visits and utilized “panic alert buttons” or safety escorts for workers providing care for “patients with at-risk behaviors.”
State home care workforce safety bills
Since the October tragedy, home care workplace safety has risen to the top of Connecticut’s legislative agenda.
One proposal of note is Senate Bill 1, which would require home care agencies to run background checks on their clients and anybody else living in the same location as the client. The bill has drawn criticism from home care and hospice stakeholders for imposing administrative requirements that many agencies would have a hard time fulfilling. One hospice operator recently noted that providing escorts for caregivers would exacerbate existing staffing burdens and potentially reduce patients’ access to care. They also pointed out that mandatory background checks could expose some patients to discrimination.
Even more recently, the state House passed a sweeping bill that would require home care workers to wear badges with their name and picture, among other provisions, according to a local report. The Home Care Association of America testified against the legislation, saying that some of its requirements would drive up costs for home care and hospice providers.
Still, Connecticut’s legislature appears committed to advancing these home care safety laws. Roughly a dozen proposed bills affecting the state’s home healthcare industry are awaiting decision.
Also on Wednesday, Elara Caring agreed to pay $4.2 million to resolve Justice Department allegations that it knowingly submitted false claims and retained overpayments for providing hospice care to patients who were not terminally ill and thus ineligible for Medicare hospice.
