Healthcare workers are on the front lines when it comes to taking care of injured workers, and we can forget that they are susceptible to injuries on the job as well. There are 18 million healthcare workers in the country and they suffer one of the highest rates of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses. Aon Global Risk Consulting released their “Health Care Workers’ Compensation Barometer” report, the third edition. Taking a look at workers’ compensation in healthcare, they analyzed injury frequency, severity and loss for claims from 52 healthcare systems, for a total of 1,600 separate facilities. While it appears that claims frequency is declining, claim severity is going up. This is a workforce where workers are getting older and workplace violence is prevalent, these are things that could lead to even more serious claims if the industry does not do something to address and prevent hazards.

The report predicts that in 2017 loss rates will increase by one percent, to $0.75 per $100 of payroll. Frequency has been decreasing over the past decade and they predict that frequency will continue to decrease by one percent a year. While that is great news, claim severity will increase by two percent. A problem that the industry is facing is that workers are getting older- over half of nurses are over the age of 50. Nurses can suffer injuries to their back and shoulders and such claims for workers over the age of 50 cost about 30 percent more than workers under the age of 50. In the sample data, back and shoulder claims comprised 71 percent of patient handling related claims.

In addition to the aging workforce, health workers are also susceptible to patient handling injuries and violence.  According to the surveys given to these healthcare facilities, 58 percent of them have some kind of program in place to help younger workers understand and learn how to prevent risks associated with handling patients. Roughly that same percentage of survey respondents, 61 percent, do not have any programs to help older workers transition their job duties into a role that left them less susceptible to injuries. Average claim costs in workplaces that adhered to the Safe Patient Handling and Mobility standards were lower than for claims in workplaces that did not use the standards, $6,000 versus $7,800. Participants in the survey felt like there was room to improve in safe patient handling practices.

Many workplaces, 81 percent, have a workplace violence prevention policy. At the same time, 91 percent said there has been workplace violence in that past three years at their facility.

The report’s database included claims from all 50 states but it goes into specifics on frequency, severity and loss rates for 11 states- California, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.  It is interesting to note that in California claim severity is almost three times the country average and loss rates are almost twice as much as the country’s average, projected at $1.42 per $100 of payroll compared to the national average of $0.75. Their claim severity is also over two and a half times higher than the countrywide average, at $23,950 compared to $9,130.

Download Aon’s report here.