The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Thursday that it cited the operator of multiple psychiatric and rehabilitation facilities for the third time in five years after workers were killed or seriously injured in violent patient attacks.
OSHA cited Melbourne, Florida-based Circles of Care Inc. for a “repeat” violation and an “other-than-serious” violation for various safety and health failures and issued $101,397 in proposed penalties.
The agency said Circles of Care failed to provide sufficient controls designed to prevent the “escalation of acts of aggression toward professional staff.”
“Circles of Care’s reluctance to protect its employees from the recognized danger of patient assault is shocking,” OSHA Orlando Area Office Director Erin Sanchez said in a statement.
The citation and proposed fines stem from a November 2023 inspection following a worker’s hospitalization. The employee was injured in the head, face, hands and arms after a patient used a metal hole punch to strike the mental health technician at a nurse’s workstation, OSHA said.
The agency said it also investigated the company after two other incidents in 2020 at the Melbourne facility. One of those was a fatal shooting of a counselor by a former patient and the other involved an alleged assault.
Circles of Care, which operates 10 behavioral health and substance abuse facilities, and has about 480 employees in Florida, has 15 business days to contest the citation and proposed penalties.