A Columbus children’s hospital failed to protect employees — including nurses and mental health professionals — from patients whose bites, kicks, punches, and other assaults caused serious injuries, a US Department of Labor investigation has found. Responding to a complaint of unsafe working conditions, investigators with the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened an investigation in November 2022 at the Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. OSHA determined the facility did not protect its employees from violent incidents involving the hospital’s patients in which nurses and mental health staff suffered concussions, lacerations, contusions, and sprains. The agency also learned the facility failed to keep proper records of employee injuries as required.
