Safety as an Ongoing Operation

Why don’t companies look at safety as an ongoing operation? Most companies purchase a manual and place it on the shelf to collect dust. If they are ambitious, they may take a step forward and even enter data in a software program or insert basic information into their manual. Unfortunately, that is not enough. Safety must be maintained and keeping your program fresh and “in sync” with OSHA and best practices requires a great deal of effort. Even the conscientious safety director with good intentions in most cases falls behind. A practical approach and credible resources are needed to maintain an effective, ongoing safety program. 
Obviously, the most important component is a proper plan and structure. A good foundation includes management commitment and employee involvement, work-site analysis, hazard control and training. Commitment from management can be demonstrated through written policies, a safety budget and involvement in activities such as the review of accident investigations. Employees can be part of administering training, site inspections and accident reporting. Work-site analysis is accomplished through review of accident records, job-site inspections, and job-hazard analyses. Hazard controls include all steps taken to avoid injury including employee incentives and disciplinary measures. In order to complete the base program, all employees need to be trained. 

The problem is that even with a complete program, addressing updates and staying current can be overwhelming. You need a plan and credible and current resources that allow you to evaluate the updates in relation to your safety program and OSHA activity. The following is a suggested update strategy: 

• Establish a review schedule:  To avoid being overwhelmed, select a topic to review each month. Pay particular attention to hazards OSHA has selected as a focus.

• Perform required actions and establish a record:  After identifying the required procedures and updating the written safety program, “take action.” For example, if you establish required PPE or workplace assessments, make sure they are completed and documented each and every month.

• Check related equipment:  Many hazards are associated with equipment or personal-protective equipment. Make sure proper maintenance has been performed. Schedule future inspections and follow your preventative maintenance schedules.  If you haven’t established them yet, there is no time like the present.   By tracking inspection activity you are able to establish a strict schedule for your next series of inspections.

• Conduct Refresher Training:  Update and administer employee training. Include basic information on hazards and any new information. Previously trained employees can always benefit from a refresher.

• Hire an Outside Consultant:  Hiring a third party with a fresh set of eye’s and perspective on your organization can make a dramatic impact.  Not to mention, holding your “feet to the fire” to make sure tasks and training are being completed as required.

With a solid foundation and proper structure in place, you are on your way to creating an effective, ongoing safety program. Select the resources that best fit your schedule and budget. Make sure you understand the resources you select, will affect the amount of effort it takes to deliver an effective program. Remember the right choices are the ones you can sustain and measure. Don’t wait, whichever option you chose, get your safety program started today.

Mythbuster: Steel Toe Boots Can Sever or Amputate My Toes So I’m Safer Without Them

This is the number one excuse we hear for guys or girls that just don’t want to wear steel toed boots.  If I had a 30 lb anvil and you had to have it dropped on your toes and I gave you three choices for your feet: 

1. Barefoot 
2. Regular work boots no steel toe 
3. ANSI Approved Steel Toe Work Boots or shoes 

Which would you choose?

Adam and Jamie of the Mythbusters actually covered this subject very well and the myth was totally busted. This was Mythbusters episode 42.  Their final result:
Steel toe boots have a higher amputation risk than regular boots: myth busted

Steel Cap Amputation
Myth: Steel-toed boots are more dangerous than regular boots — if something falls on the boots, the steel can curl in and cut off your toes.

(Remember…this is what the believers of this myth are saying. When something heavy hits the boot toe it causes the steel toe cap in the boot to compress down cutting off the toes. It’s not the object falling on the foot that causes the amputation but the object causing enough force that the steel toe cap in  the boot clamps down, cutting through the foot and bone and severing the toes.)

They were able to find one occurrence of amputation while wearing steel-toed boots occurring in real life. In 2002, an Australian worker lost his 3rd toe when some steel pipes feel from a forklift.

Adam and Jamie constructed various tests for this myth using both a guillotine toe-smasher and an arbor-press. Initially they used frangible feet that Adam made, but it turned out that they made a mistake in assuming that their frangible feet would model real human feet being crushed. For better comparisons they ended up using clay.

Frangible Feet Construction
Adam constructed frangible feet to test with based on landmine frangible feet. After testing chicken legs, bamboo, and fiberglass as substitutes for human bones, he decided to use fiberglass bones. The bones were set in a ballistics gel cast of Adam’s leg.

NOTE: in turned out that the results from this test were somewhat invalid. After testing with the steel-toed boots they tested with the regular boots and discovered that the ballistics gel was too springy and was invalidating their results.

Setup: * Guillotine-style toe crusher that drops a flag metal bar onto the toe of a boot beneath. * Used the highest-rated (ANSI-75) steel toe boots.

Results: * 75lbs from 3 feet (official ANSI test height and weight): mashed the leather down a bit, but nothing injurious. * 400lbs from 3 ft: more deformation in the steel plate, but only damage to frangible foot was a broken metatarsal (big toe). Adam: “I want to see some toes cut off or crushed beyond all recognition” * 400lbs from 6 ft: a lot of pancaking of steel cap and lots of broken bones beneath, but no toe amputation.

They didn’t detail the results from the regular boot because of their discovery about the ballistics gel being too springy.

Guillotine drop on boots filled with clay
Because of the ballistics gel problem they decided to use clay instead of the frangible bone legs they had constructed. Clay is the method ANSI uses to test boots.

At the official test height of 3ft with 75lbs there was 0.5″ of clay compression with the steel-toe boot, which is exactly to spec. The regular boot failed horribly, with the clay being completely splattered.

Arbor press test to find total failure point
They used an arbor press to squish boots to their total failure point. The steel-toe boot was able to take 6000lbs of pressure before total failure; the regular boot was only able to take about 1200lbs, which was hard to measure as it failed so quickly.

Shearing attachment tests
In order to test a worst case scenario, they made a shearing attachment, which was a thin metal plate that would hit the boot on edge. They mounted the shearing attachment to the arbor press: at 750 lbs it broke every bone in the frangible foot; at 1400 lbs it severed all the bones in the feet.

They then mounted the shearing attachment on the guillotine and raised it to it’s max height of 6ft and max weight of 400lbs. The blade glanced off the steel plate, shearing the entire shoe in half. They tested again and got the same result. In this particular scenario, were a heavy blade to drop on your foot you could actually lose more of your foot as the steel cap could direct the glade further up the foot as it did in the test. This isn’t the failure mode described in the tests (remember…the myth is the steel toe cap cuts the toes off…not the object falling), though, and regardless of what type of boot you used there would be amputation.

Mythbusted: They had to mount a blade in order to get amputation with the steel toe boot and all their other tests showed much more damage to the foot when regular boots are used.

Opiods and Chronic Pain

Did your workers compensation rates increase at your 2013 renewal

You just received your 2013 workers compensation renewal, the premium increased and your experience modification (E Mod) did as well.   Do you know why, specifically?  Are you satisfied with your brokers answers?    Do you have a plan to reverse  this trend?  If you don’t know exactly why and you don’t have a plan to reverse this trend, then expect to pay a lot more for your workers compensation in the years to come.

Many companies with  higher than expected injury rates experienced a substantial increase in their workers compensation premiums at their January 1, 2013 renewal.  As projected, the new split point changes to the E Mod formula increased your E Mod and consequently your premium.  Whether you realize it or not, your  E Mod in excess of 1.0 caused insurance companies to view you differently and gave them the green light to raise your premiums on top of the increased E Mod.  When Insurance companies price your policies, they place you in rate tiers based on your E Mod and when your E Mod goes up, guess what, so do your rates.

If you didn’t go into 2013 with a plan to reverse this trend, you need to act now to avoid a fall off your own “fiscal workers compensation cost cliff”.  Here is what we recommend:

• Your safety and risk management departments need to immediately become a more of a critical component to your business model.  If you don’t have a plan in place, hire an experienced occupational health & safety professional to help you implement a plan quickly
• If your company has an E-Mod of 1.2 or higher, you need to take drastic steps to reduce your injury rate now.   Again, an experienced professional knows how to help and has a specific plan to address this issue
• The reserves on all of your Workers Comp claims will now be more important than ever.  If you do not have online access, it may be good to check with your carrier to see if online access is available.  Without the ability to accesses your WC claims and get real time data you will be unable to make sound business decisions to affect the outcomes of these injuries.  Do not wait around to your next renewal, like you have in the past to feel the impact
• Alternative insurance  arrangements such as large deductibles, self insurance, loss groups, risk retention groups, and captives may now be more attractive and cost effective.  Caution, if you don’t have plan in place to control injuries and the costs associated with these injuries, alternative (loss sensitive) arrangements are not a viable option
• If your company is in the Assigned Risk Pool because you cannot find coverage in the voluntary marketplace, you need to immediately institute or increase the efforts of your safety program.  Failure to do so, will increase your premiums to the point where you may have to close your doors

Are Injury Reporting Procedures & Fraud Eroding Your Comany's Profits

Why don’t employees report injuries when they occur?  Could these be the reasons?

• Afraid they will lose their job
• Don’t want to get in trouble for doing something they shouldn’t have
• Spoil a potential company pizza party for number of days without an injury
• Don’t have a process to report the claim
• Don’t know how or who to contact to report an injury
• Not sure they are actually hurt
• Need to meet a production goal
• Think they can tough it out
• They don’t want to go to clinic for a drug screen
• Got hurt at home & trying to determine a strategy to claim they were injured on the job

Why do employees commit fraud? Could these be the reasons?

• Paid time off with no vacation time left
• Free prescription drugs
• Chance of large cash windfall
• Brag to friends they beat the company out of big money
• Lazy and don’t want to work
• Looking to blame someone else and make them pay for their place in life
• Because all their friends & family do
• Bad work environment
• Feel like company owners don’t care about them
•  Feel like company owners owe them

With all the reasons for employees not reporting injuries or committing fraud, why don’t business owners take better control of these situations? In my opinion they do not understand the impact of these situations on their profitability  and productivity.  If they did, I guarantee they would take action.  Now the problem is, what action would they take if they understood the impact?  Do they know the answer? Do their trusted HR Managers or Risk Managers know the answer?  I would venture to say that most do not know what to do.  Do you?

At Three Sixty Safety we help you understand the why & the how.  Our proven system does what you need it to do.  It gets employees proper medical care as soon as required  and it stops fraud in its tracks.  Contact your Three Sixty Safety representative today to get started on making your company “Best in Class” which means “Best in Profits”.!!!  

The Lockout and Safety

As many of us know, the NFL recently locked out officials, replacing them with hard working, yet under-qualified replacements.

People who pay attention have been complaining since the beginning of the preseason that the replacements are sub-par, but most of the viewing public couldn't tell a dramatic difference.

Then, this happened...

On the last play of the game, the Packers intercepted a Hail Mary pass, but it was ruled a touchdown for the Seahawks.

That call decided the game, and an outcry for the NFL to get their regular officials back in the game quickly followed.

Is this the way it is in your business with your broker and risk manager?   Often times, employers go about their day-to-day business, and figure their safety initiatives are good enough and their insurance broker is doing a good job.  Our experience tells us a closer look should be taken and it should be a high priority for your business.

Many business owners do not have the time or experience to pay close enough attention to the many mistakes being made every day by their current brokers.  What is the process used in your injury management program?  My guess is there is no process in place. 

Until something big happens like a huge additional premium at audit, an unexpected spike in your experience mod (which is coming), or an improperly handled injury that escalated and is now effecting your renewal premium.  Rates are expected to increase this year with the changes in health care and the ever increasing costs of medical care and indemnity costs due to an aging workforce.

And WHEN you get tackled by the news, will it be too late? What will you do?

Do you want to wait around until something goes horribly wrong or would you rather be able to look at the replays of the mistakes that are being made so you can choose the right broker before something catastrophic happens?

Replacing under performing brokers is what we live for, and they are making it easy for us right now.  The market is tightening, rates are increasing in almost every state and the biggest changes in 20 years are coming to the NCCI experience mod starting January 1 in many states.

If your broker visits you 90 days before your renewal, updates your exposures and searches the market for better pricing you better start looking elsewhere for a new broker now.  Earning money for doing nothing is simply no longer acceptable. 

Contact our brokers and risk manager at EasternMichigan Agencies and Three Sixty Safety™ for your first Safety Impact Study™ and find out just what you have been missing.  

Workers Compensation Prices Increasing as Market Hardens

Workers compensation insurance prices are increasing, substantially in some cases, and policy offerings are diminishing as insurers seek to address unprofitable combined ratios amid rising indemnity and medical costs. Liberty Mutual Group Inc., for example, reports that on average it secured a 9% overall rate increase for workers comp policies that were sold during the second quarter of 2012 compared with the same period last year.

For middle-market accounts that purchased guaranteed-cost policies during the quarter, Liberty obtained a 12.1% increase on average.  Liberty is one of the nation's biggest workers comp insurers.  With Liberty reporting its premium increases it is also reported many insurers are being very aggressive pushing higher rates than that.  Meanwhile, employers are exiting workers comp guaranteed-cost policies that have fixed costs and taking on greater risk by purchasing loss-sensitive plans with lower premiums but higher deductibles. 

Market experts say companies are doing so because workers comp insurers are shrinking their offerings or raising policy prices, particularly for guaranteed-cost coverage. The loss-sensitive plans increase employers' responsibility for claims management, because such plans often come with higher deductibles that hold them accountable for loss control and claims management.  Loss-sensitive programs however, are not for every company.

One reason is that work comp insurers underwriting for a large-deductible policy scrutinize the employer's income statement and balance sheet is to make sure policyholders can provide the collateral insurers require to secure potential losses within the deductible.  Insurers are valuing financials so they can avoid taking credit risk.  Therefore, if you take on $100,000 deductible, you are going to have to collateralize the expected losses within that $100,000.  Regardless of the costs and the increased scrutiny, more employers are making the move to loss-sensitive work comp coverage. 

With “guaranteed costs for larger insured’s, the price is either going up or the availability is starting to shrink.  Hence people are either returning to loss-sensitive or considering loss-sensitive (insurance programs) if the rate increases have been more than they budgeted for or are unacceptable.  Larger employers that purchased guaranteed-cost policies the past few years during the soft insurance market cycle, when the price of such coverage was “cheap,” also are shifting back to loss-sensitive programs. 

The market (had) been so soft that even multimillion-dollar work comp accounts that have been guaranteed-cost are transitioning.  Shifting between guaranteed-cost and loss-sensitive workers comp coverage is common when insurance market cycles firm or soften, experts say.  Before companies shift they should understand that under a loss-sensitive arrangement they will be responsible for an array of new decisions, such as whether to unbundle their claims management by contracting with a third-party administrator.

Under a guaranteed-cost plan, policyholders turn over most of such claims-handling decisions to their insurers.  Employers also must be sure they are “operationally ready” for the responsibilities of taking on greater risk through a loss-sensitive policy.  For example, a company's finance department or treasury would be more involved in meeting the insurer's collateral requirements, while operations managers may have to take on greater roles in reducing subsequent losses the employer would retain. 

Over the long term, employers can realize savings with a loss-sensitive workers comp plan that requires them to play a more direct role in managing their claims instead of transferring all their workers comp risk to insurers.  Companies must realize there will be fluctuations in claims costs, with the potential for some large losses to occur before the long-term savings materialize. There also are substantial loss-control considerations, such as whether an employer has the in-house staff or ability to pay a third party (such as Three Sixty Safety™) for claims analysis that helps them understand certain issues, such as which business units are generating the greatest losses. 

If you go self-insured with some notion that you are automatically going to have savings, that is naïve.  You have to focus on controlling your costs throughout the organization.  Others agree that analyzing losses is a first step.  The first thing you really have to look at is where are your losses. Then employers should conduct a cost-benefit analysis to determine their total cost of risk under various work comp programs.  Employers evaluating the shift also must look at their loss trends and experience modification factors to see which direction they are heading.  Most companies that buy guaranteed cost lose track of the fact that their open claims are going up.  And when you are on a deductible program, you are going to be continuing to write checks.

Three Sixty Safety™ specializes in claims management, controlling costs, identifying loss sources, claim cost benefit analysis, experience modification analysis and claims reduction and micro management where appropriate.  Contact a Three Sixty Safety™ representative today for a free no obligation “Safety Impact Study” worth up to $2,500.00.