Reducing Hazards = Reduced Incidents & Fewer Claims

Wednesday, December 8, 2004 | 0

I am a District Safety Manager for the one of the top, self-insured retailers in the world. We can afford to do anything and everything when it comes to workers' comp, but we choose to keep it honest in order to reduce our claims. Not just the claims we're willing to pay out. Not just the claims that are legitimate. All claims. To reduce claims we first seek to reduce the incidents.

What does this mean in our case? It means that a company that paid approximately 600 million dollars in workers' comp claims last year has aggressively chosen to reduce that figure by 50%, or 300 million dollars that will go toward our bottom line. Money, got to love it. We haven't stopped making it for 25 years. So why have we been so willing to throw it away in the form of worker's comp money? Why have we chosen as an industry to not take care of all of our workers?

An injured worker claim can cost a company money in many ways. First, it removes the worker temporarily from production/service until the injury is identified and treated. Small injuries can be treated with a Band-Aid and the worker returns to the floor. But too many times s/he spends 15 minutes complaining and bleeding, going to the restroom to bleed and complain some more, before s/he gets a Band-Aid. Then the worker spends the next 10 minutes nursing the wound until they realize it's not going to get better without some kind of treatment.

Now for the rest of the scenario. As many company polices require, the worker must report the injury. Assuming this had been done for our simple bleeding and bandaged injured worker, it requires 15 to 20 minutes of managerial time to fill out a claim folder. Why fill out a claim folder? Because the injury could get infected be claimed later down the road. This could also be a requirement of workers' comp law in the state.

Now for the extreme. A worker falls from a ladder and lands atop and kills a 3 year old child. The press gets hold of the story... "Injured worker with splitting headache has recurring migraines for life." The claim pays millions of dollars from company's bottom line. The worker is not working and probably spent all the money paying for lawyers and medical treatments for his migraines after the company has already finished paying out the claim. Twenty years down the road the worker is still not working and the money has stopped coming in. The company lost an untold amount of income from potential business due to bad press and law suits from the child's family. What ever the real scenario may be, it's never pleasant.

To reduce the incidents, we must reduce the hazards in the workplace. If there are no hazards in the workplace then there is nothing to get injured by, with the exception of the worker tripping over his or her own two feet. Trust me, this does happen and my company has paid out for it.

For every hazard (trip, slip, fall, confined space, machinery running, box of nails on the floor, paper cut, hot water scald, you name it) there is a potential amount of minor injuries that require either basic first aid or nothing at all. For every hazard there is a potential amount of injuries that are OSHA reportable (visit to doctor, loss of work days, etc.). For every hazard there is a potential amount of serious injuries requiring hospitalization and long term disability. Then finally, for every hazard there is a potential amount of death. People are going to die from a hazard in a workplace--period. Now for the fun part. ELIMINATE THE HAZARD and you eliminate the injuries that could result in death. That's easy.

How many workplace hazards are present in any workplace? Just look around and count. As I sit behind my two computers, I'm pretty safe, hot coffee sitting in front of me. (Oops, did I just say hot?). I have plenty of adequate lighting powered by electricity. I type away in ergonomically incorrect fashion. Inevitably, one day, my wrist will receive a sharp pain from all the typing, causing it to twitch and knock the scalding hot coffee onto my now steaming lap and the electrical wires, which give electrical charge to the coffee that rides up from the floor and electrocutes me to death. You see, there are hazards everywhere in the workplace. We chose to accept the risk associated with certain hazards. Coffee sure does taste good! And, if I'm careful, won't spill on my lap and burn me. Electricity has been harnessed safely through the wires leading to my outlets and lamps, should there not be a ground fault and short to the base of my metal lamp. My ergonomically incorrect chair and typing position can be remedied if I get a better chair and change my posture in relation to my computer and keyboard.

Like I said, hazards are everywhere and we choose to accept the risks associated with certain hazards. Eliminate the hazards and you eliminate the incidents, thus eliminating the injuries, claims, and money being paid for workers' comp. Wait a minute, that could mean our jobs.

Here's the rub. You'll never eliminate all the hazards. Focus on reducing the hazards in the workplace and you can reduce the incidents. Reducing the workplace hazards is a difficult job and changing workers' habits and company procedures can be costly. Wait a minute--did I just say "change?"

Andrew J. DePaolo is a District Safety Manager for an international retailer based in the Southern California Area.

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