https://www.thecampbellinstitute.org/research/

The Campbell Institute released a report at this year’s National Safety Council Congress & Expo that looked at injury and fatality data in the workplace and used the data to suggest a redesign of a safety prevention model.

“Serious Injury and Fatality Prevention: Perspectives and Practices” recognizes the significant improvements in workplace safety over the years. In 1993 there were 8.5 incidents per 200,000 hours and in 2016 there were 3.0 incidents per 200,000 working hours. Even though total workplace injuries have declined worker fatalities are at a high, 5,190 people died in 2016.

The report recommends redesigning the standard “safety triangle” which includes major injuries, minor injuries and non-injury accidents to improve serious injury and fatality (SIF) prevention. The safety triangle theorizes that for every major injury there are 29 minor injuries and 300 non-injury incidents. Though this triangle has been used as a standard over the years safety professionals realize that not all non-injury incidents are equal when it comes to their potential for resulting in SIF, and they should isolate the part of the triangle that has the potential for SIF and try and prevent those incidents. The new SIF prevention model would include fatalities, lost time injuries, and recordable injuries and precursors, while isolating the incidents that have SIF potential. The logic being that treating minor incidents and near misses as if they have the potential to result in SIF may divert attention away from incidents that do contain the most potential to result in SIF.

The new model encourages organizations to focus on the process factors that lead to SIF, since human error will always occur rather than focus on “repairing” the worker, they should focus on repairing gaps in their safety management system and try to use work processes that eliminate human error. The research pointed out examples from companies who have adapted their approaches based on this new model. At one company all incident and near miss reports are reviewed by a safety team comprised of two people at a global level, a regional health and safety director and another health and safety professional at the next level down. Incidents and near misses with a rating determined to be between 7-10 will be reviewed at the global level. Another company provides SIF prevention training during their annual global safety training.

The report suggests next steps like organizing a think-tank style piece that defines “serious injury”, “precursor” and “potential”. The idea being that having a consensus on these definitions could help organizations develop their own SIF prevention programs. Other ideas include recognizing the level of fatigue present at work sites and implementing fatigue risk management programs, since employee fatigue causes many serious workplace injuries, and preventing serious injuries using better visuals for hazard recognition.

Read more here and read the final report here.