In December, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) introduced the Nurse and Health Care Worker Protection Act which would significantly improve healthcare facility safety, according to an article on The Hill website.

The measure would direct the Department of Labor to issue a standard requiring healthcare employers to implement safe patient handling programs in their facilities. 

These programs use patient lifting equipment such as lifts and slide boards to take the strain of lifting and moving patients off of workers' backs.

While OSHA has undertaken efforts to draw attention to the issue, David Michaels, assistant secretary of the Department of Labor and OSHA head, has stated that he believes OSHA is virtually prohibited from issuing any substantive rule making safe patient handling programs the national standard without a federal law in place.

Read the article.