By far one of the most tragic work place incidents to hit the Pittsburgh area took place last spring at UPMC's Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. Five individuals were wounded and one died when a man, that had formerly been a graduate student at the location, shot at them. The man was he himself killed when police responded to the violent incident.

The federal government takes workplace safety throughout the nation very seriously. In its quest to reduce workplace accidents, it created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. In addition to completing inspections of workplaces throughout the nation, OSHA is also brought in when something happens that makes the workplace unsafe.

Following the shooting incident in Pennsylvania, OSHA commenced an investigation. These investigations often result in citations and fines. Results of this particular investigation, which lasted six months, were recently released and not all are pleased with the agency's findings. Specifically, the family of the man the shooter killed.

The investigation failed to issue any citations or fines against the mental health hospital. Interestingly, this may in part be due to the fact that the hospital had not created any standards pertaining to violence in the workplace for it to violate. It also probably had to do with the fact that OSHA took a more holistic approach in its investigation, taking into consideration a variety of incidents

OSHA did however provide six recommendations to the hospital including that security in the part of the facility in which the incident occurred, the lobby, be tightened. Should these recommendations be ignored, citations could eventually be levied.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Officials suggest changes but no penalties at Western Psych," Jonathan D. Silver, Sept. 29, 2012