S1 Ep5: Mighty Line Minute | Injury & Illness Classification

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Hello everyone, this is Dave at Mighty Line, and today we'll be talking about
how to classify injuries and illnesses in your investigation programs, what they
mean, and why it's so important that employers use these systems today.
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Data developed from these systems help us to better understand trends, causal
factors, and develop means to prevent recurrence of injuries and illnesses.
Federal safety and health agencies require the use of classification systems. For
example, OSHA with their Forms 300, 300A and their Injury and Illness Report
301 require such classification. However, beyond that, workers compensation
requirements from various states or provinces also require classifications
involving all injuries and illnesses.
Further, organizations have the opportunity to dive more deeply into incident
investigation and look at root causes, conduct deeper analyses, and develop
more comprehensive means to prevent recurrence. Incident investigation,
analysis, and data collection to prevent recurrence should always be
comprehensive. If the program only seeks to provide information for OSHA
purposes and to collect data for reporting, it will not be sufficient to develop
those safety solutions necessary, such as education and training, changes in
management systems or machinery or equipment, or other paths forward to help
prevent future recurrence of any of these incidents.
Workers' compensation systems are designed to provide wage and replacement
benefits, and to deal with disability associated with work-related injuries or
illnesses. The data that will be developed will not be as comprehensive as a
system that enables deeper dives, risk assessment, risk analysis, and
opportunities to prevent recurrence.
Be sure that your incident management process allows the opportunity to dive
deeply so that you can learn the who, what, why, where, when, and how of all
investigations, and go further with the deep dives necessary such as root cause
analysis and systems management improvements.
Your investigation application should include type of injury or illness, nature of
injury or illness, part of body involved, and the agency or equipment,
machinery, substance or system associated with the incident.
Finally, in order to enhance safety and health management systems and risk
management programs at your operations, be sure to take a look at risk
assessment processes, as those systems allow the opportunity to dive deeper into
risks and exposures that would otherwise be unidentified through the use of
common injury and illness data tools.
Be sure to have a safe day, and I look forward to talking to you from Mighty
Line again. Take care and Have a Mighty Day - Dave