Safety Management Systems

1Source has been helping clients to develop and improve the performance of their Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems. Often, the first step in improving performance is to conduct a detailed safety and health audit of policies, programs, record keeping, and loss data. The information from the audit is used to develop a management action plan that will result in improved performance. Our goal is to provide dramatic return on investment for our clients. Need more information, or a proposal?  Please click on Information Request, or contact Colin J. Brigham, CIH, CSP, CPE, CPEA, Vice President Safety Management and Ergonomics at 888.873.9983, Ext. 24 or cbrigham@1ssh.com.

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Reduce Your Workers’ Compensation Insurance Cost

For most companies, the cost of workers’ compensation insurance is a major expense. However, there is a way to reduce that expense. Forming a safety committee can provide real savings for your company. A well-designed and administered safety committee can help to reduce the burden of running a safety program and increase the return on the investment.

The benefits to forming an effective safety committee include

1. Increased employee involvement
2. Increased productivity
3. Increased morale
4. Decreased injuries and illnesses
   
5. Decreased waste of materials
   
6. Decreased cost of insurance coverage

In reviewing the benefits, let’s begin at the bottom and work our way up. Pennsylvania provides a 5 percent reduction in your workers’ compensation premium if you have an effective safety committee that meets the state’s criteria. Pennsylvania offers this savings in recognition that having an effective safety committee typically reduces workers’ compensation costs by much more than the 5 percent. If an employer has an effective committee, both the employer and the state win. It’s a good return on investment for both parties.

Both material waste and injury and illness rates are reduced. Morale is increased through the improvement in both the ability to be involved in decision-making and improvement in workplace conditions. Productivity is improved as people are working smarter and safer. The burden of running the safety program is reduced as the responsibility for safety is switched from a selected few to all employees served by the safety committee.

The safety committee can serve as the H.E.A.R.T. (Hazard Evaluation Accident Review Team) of your safety and health program. It can help to strengthen the body of the program by detecting conditions that could or have caused harm, and then pumping information into the program to protect it from that harm or to repair the harm that has occurred. Using the heart and body analogy, if one hazard that you have is chemical use and your program to address hazardous chemicals is weak, you need to strengthen that “muscle” by having the H.E.A.R.T. remove the weak parts of the program, and then rebuild it.

How do you establish an effective safety committee?
Why is a committee needed?
Who should be involved?
What should their responsibilities be?
When should they meet?
Where should they meet?
 
For answers to these and other questions, or for assistance in establishing or revitalizing a safety committee, please contact Colin J. Brigham, CIH, CSP, CPE, CPEA, Vice President, at 888-873-9983, ext. 24, or cbrigham@1ssh.com.

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Accident and Illness Prevention Programs – A Formula for Success

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania requires insurers, individuals who are self-insured, and group self-insurance funds to develop and maintain accident and illness prevention programs (AIPP) in order to provide workers’ compensation coverage. Failure to do so may mean the removal of the right to provide such coverage.

Why are these programs required?

Prior to implementing this requirement and other workers’ compensation reforms in the mid-1990s, Pennsylvania employers were experiencing very high injury and illness rates, losses, and increased premiums. They were losing money and jobs to other states! Something had to be done, and AIPP was part of the solution.

What is required, and how can you make AIPP compliance a formula for success?

There are two sets of requirements: those for required accident and illness program elements (A-O elements) and those for work environment procedures (P elements).

The A-O elements must be present within the AIPP that was developed, implemented, and monitored by the self-insured employer. These elements are required by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. Each element has descriptive language stating the requirements. For example, the following is the description for the Safety Program Policy Statement:

“A written statement regarding the Accident and Illness Prevention Program that contains the employer’s philosophy regarding accident and illness prevention. The Safety Program Policy Statement is the foundation for all program activities. The statement is signed by a Chief Executive Officer and is communicated to all employees in the organization.”

The P elements are written work environment procedures that must be developed, implemented, and maintained if you have those exposures. Each of those elements also has descriptive language stating the requirements.

Implementing an effective AIPP-compliant program can have significant positive impacts. Examples of the success achieved by some winners of the 2003/2004 Governor’s Award for Safety Excellence are:

• Centocor: A biopharmaceutical company located in Malvern, Pennsylvania, their OSHA recordable rate dropped from 1.65 in 1996 to 0.59 in 2001.
• Grove Worldwide: A manufacturer of mobile hydraulic cranes and aerial platforms located in Shady Grove, Pennsylvania, their OSHA lost workday incident rate dropped from 3.7 in 1998 to 1.0 in 2002, a 72.9 percent reduction.
  
• EME Homer City Generation L.P.: One of the largest coal-fired power plants in the mid-Atlantic region, it is located in Homer City, Pennsylvania. They exceeded over 2 million hours without a lost-time injury.

On a final note, the Pennsylvania Bureau of Workers’ Compensation conducts random and planned audits of ALL businesses, schools, hospitals, etc., that are required to have an AIPP program. Depending on the outcome of the audit, they have the authority to suspend the self-insured status of an organization.

To learn more about AIPP compliance, how to achieve it, the benefits it provides, and auditing procedures, please contact Colin J. Brigham, CIH, CSP, CPE at 610.524.5525 ext 24 or cbrigham@1ssh.com

GRAPHIC CONTENT

A-O Elements
a. Safety Program Policy Statement
b. Safety Coordinator Designation
c. Safety Program Responsibility Assignment
d. Hazard Identification Methods
e. Industrial/Occupational Health Services
f. Industrial Hygiene Services
g. AIPP Training
h. Emergency Action Plan
i. Employee Safety Suggestion Program
j. Employee Involvement Methods
k. Safety Rule Enforcement Procedure
l. Accident Reporting and Investigation
m. Availability of First Aid and CPR
n. Program Evaluation Methods
o. Program Goals and Objectives

Workplace
Accident
Reduction
&
Performance
Enhancement
Achieving
Compliant
Environments

p. Elements

1. Electrical and Machine Guarding
2. Personal Protective Equipment
3. Hearing Conservation Program
4. Vision Conservation Program
5. Lockout/Tag Out Program
6. Hazardous Materials and Waste Program
7. Confined Space Entry Program
8. Fire Prevention & Protection Program
9. Bloodborne Pathogens Exposure Control
10. Pre-Operational Process Review
11. Substance Abuse Awareness & Prevention

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A Process of Continuous Improvement

It has been said that if something can be measured, it can be improved. This principle not only applies to increased quality and performance of products used in our daily lives, but it equally applies to everyday business practices. Yes, including safety and health programs. Fact is, most safety and health programs do not reach their full potential for one of many reasons, one of which is failure to implement a successful continuous improvement process. The basic framework for implementing a continuous improvement process for safety and health programs is depicted in the following model.

As shown in the model, gaining management support is one of the keys to the success of the process. Management support can be achieved only if you can provide convincing factual data regarding the benefits, i.e., the return on investment that the process will provide. Obtaining factual data requires detailing all the issues by conducting a GAP analysis. This may take time and outside resources to understand the intricacies of safety and health, BUT it really is at the crux of success. Remember, you need to correctly identify the issues in order to correct the problems.

Completing the GAP analysis will allow you to establish measurable goals and to develop very specific action plans that are critical to success. Action plans should be very short statements of what needs to be done, by whom and by when and with what results.  It is important to point out that at this point the process is going to get more difficult, because it will require more commitment, more knowledge, more experience, more cooperation and involvement from more and more individuals.

As you begin to implement the action plans, you also need to begin the process of monitoring progress by collecting data. Remember that monitoring progress requires the use of objective measurable data which will identify how the process is progressing. This information will then allow you to modify the goals and actions plans as needed and provide reports back to management demonstrating the success of the safety and health program. Remember, management will commit its resources only if there is a clear path to success.

For additional information or to discuss how a continuous improvement program can increase the performance of your safety and health program, please contact Chris Schneider, CIH, President at 888-873-9983 ext 14, www.1ssh.com or at cschneider@1ssh.com.

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