California’s workplace safety regulator has cited Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and the University of California San Francisco a combined $273,200 in proposed penalties following the fatal stabbing of a social worker at the hospital’s HIV clinic in December.
The state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) cited the hospital $130,500 for seven violations, including six labeled serious, finding the hospital lacked adequate protections to identify, investigate and manage potentially dangerous patients, the agency said in a statement shared with Becker’s. The agency separately cited the university $142,700 for eight violations, including seven serious citations, related to the lack of an effective workplace violence prevention plan. ZSFG is operated by the San Francisco Department of Public Health; UCSF physicians and clinical staff, including the victim, provide medical care at the facility under a dual-employer arrangement, according to Cal/OSHA’s investigation.
The victim, Alberto Rangel, a UCSF social worker, was stabbed multiple times Dec. 4 by a patient who had been flagged as a potential threat and escorted to the clinic by a San Francisco Sheriff’s deputy, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Mr. Rangel died of his injuries two days later. The suspect, Wilfredo Jose Tortolero-Arriechi, has been charged with murder and has pleaded not guilty, the Chronicle reported.
California has required healthcare employers to maintain workplace violence prevention plans since 2017.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health said its findings from an internal assessment were consistent with Cal/OSHA’s conclusions and that it has addressed the vast majority of the agency’s findings, some within days of the incident. In a statement, the department said it has launched expanded security staffing, weapons detection systems, enhanced physical barriers, a 24/7 threat management team and new crisis prevention training across its facilities. The city has committed $15 million annually and $7.5 million in one-time infrastructure improvements to support those efforts, the department said in a statement shared with Becker’s.
“The safety for our staff, our patients, and our community is not negotiable,” the department said.
Cal/OSHA previously had levied sanctions against the hospital in the wake of patients’ assaults on workers, inadequate staffing and attendant employee burnout, the Chronicle reported.
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