TEXT VERSION OF SLIDE:

Title: Success Story #1*
Type: Text Slide
Content:

• State - Florida
• Company - Veterans’ Health Administration
• Employees - 15,000, staff in 23 high risk units 800
• The Problem - Workers in high risk units suffered injuries resulting in disability and high workers’ compensation costs
• The Solution - A targeted back prevention program was developed and implemented resulting in a program to redesign high risk activities
  

*Source: Results from VISN-Wide Deployment of Back Injury Prevention Program for Nurses (Nelson, Fragala, Matz, 2003)

Speaker Notes:

In this success story, workers involved in patient care in high risk units were suffering over 85% of reported injuries. This resulted in disability to workers and high workers' compensation costs. An Ergonomic Management Program was implemented in six Veterans' Administration Medical Centers.

The program design consisted of a nine step process:

• Step 1 - Collect baseline injury data that focused on injuries related to patient handling and movement
• Step 2 - Identify high risk units using the baseline data of the incidence and severity of injuries
• Step 3 - Obtain pre-site visit data on high risk units using a multidisciplinary team for program implementation
• Step 4 - Identify high risk tasks and staff perceptions of high risk tasks
• Step 5 - Conduct team visit site for ergonomic assessment
• Step 6 - Risk analysis that identified high risk situations or job tasks
• Step 7 - Formulate recommendations which included engineering and administrative controls
• Step 8 - Implementation of recommendations which involves changes to the workplace including educational awareness and training
• Step 9 - Monitor results and continuously improve safety on the unit so appropriate adjustments can be considered when necessary