Minnesota Security Hospital, the state’s largest psychiatric facility, has agreed to pay one of the biggest fines ever assessed against a state agency for failing to protect workers from violence, according to an article on the Star Tribune website.
The state-operated hospital in St. Peter will pay $20,000 to settle charges by Minnesota OSHA that workers were exposed to the risk of serious injury or even death. The fines were for 10 violations of workplace safety rules from 2014 to late 2015.
The settlement also requires the state to spend $35,980 over the next year to improve safety training or to purchase safety equipment at the hospital.
In recent years, the hospital has installed more security cameras and increased staff rounds in high-acuity areas, among other measures.
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