Year 2005 - Case Studies
The Royal Hospital for Women - Highly commended for best solution to a Workplace Manual Handling Hazard Safe Work Awards 2005
Assisting new mothers with breastfeeding has long caused back injury among midwives. Manual Handling Coordinator at the Royal Hospital for Women, Karen Howard, decided to address this OHS risk by designing a breastfeeding chair specifically for the comfort of midwives and patients.
Receiving a Highly Commended for Best Solution to Workplace Manual Handling Hazard at the WorkCover NSW Safe Work Awards 2005, the chair has been adopted by hospitals around the country.
A risk management exercise in the postnatal ward of the Royal Hospital for Women identified breastfeeding as the number one hazard that left midwives with sore backs at the end of their shifts.
"We looked at the injury statistics and found we had moved two midwives in the last 12 months into a non-midwifery role because they had sustained such bad back injuries," says Karen.
Karen conducted a formal risk assessment, watching the task in progress and giving it a rating based on its potential to cause injury.
"When we looked at the chairs the patients were sitting on, they were incredibly low so the midwives had to bend and twist to assist the mothers. It can take up to an hour to get a baby to attach, so they were in these sustained unsafe postures for that period of time.
"We identified it as a fairly urgent issue that needed addressing so we came up with a new chair design and set about finding a company that could develop a prototype."
The prototype was trialled over a number of weeks in both neonatal and newborn care. Feedback was sought via a comment form and new prototypes made until a design was agreed on.
The final chair is seven centimetres higher than a standard chair, which makes it easier for patients to get in and out, as well as puts midwives in a better position when they are assisting.
A footstool for patient use was another addition following the first formal review process. Later reviews led to a foam-filled kneeling pad for staff to use in place of the old practice of kneeling on a rolled up towel or sitting on a stool.
"Over a period of six months we went through three prototypes until we found one we were happy with. The feedback from newborn care, where there is a lot of multiple births, was that the chair wasn’t wide enough, so we made it wider still to accommodate two babies," says Karen.
The back of the chair is also more upright than a standard chair, with reinforced lumbar support and a cushioned seat for post surgery soreness. There are wheels on the back legs for ease of movement, further reducing the chance of manual handling injury for cleaners, nursing staff and patients.
All 50 of the hospital’s postnatal rooms now have a breastfeeding chair, as does newborn care and breastfeeding services. The chair has been adapted for other applications, including the acute stroke and cancer ward, where it further reduces manual handling injuries.
Royal Hospital for Women staff recently voted the introduction of the chair as the number one OHS initiative. "When you look at the chair it is quite unremarkable", explains Karen, "but when you use it in the right application it makes a huge difference to the staff and their longevity in the industry. The staff have all been part of designing it and are very proud of it."
Mario Tuccio - Workplace Safety Champion - Safe Work Awards 2005
From inventing a fly saw lifting jig, to helping prevent hearing loss in high school industrial apprentices, few OHS issues escape Mario Tuccio's attention.
Winner of Workplace Safety Champion at the WorkCover NSW 2005 Safe Work Awards, Mario has spent over 20 years promoting workplace safety.
A maintenance fitter and union delegate at One Steel, Kembla Grange, Mario has served on the OHS Committee for 21 years, 16 years of which he has spent as Chairman.
"Safety was never a big deal back in the days when I first got involved, so it was worth making an issue of," explains Mario.
"Now all this has changed because companies realise that injured workers cost them money."
"My incentive for being involved is that I have seen how safe work practices can change people's lives. When I injured my back on the job and was off work for two months, it was the simple things I missed like being able to go out and hit ball with the kids."
"Even when you're rehabilitated and back on the job, you still have in your mind the fear that you may become injured again."
Inventing The Fly Saw Lifting Jig
Before Mario invented the fly saw lifting jig, the heavy blades of the saw had to be manually lifted out of their container by two workers each time they became blunt. The weight of the blade and the awkward position the workers had to stand in generated many back injuries.
When management sent around a flyer asking if anyone had any suggestions for doing the job safely, Mario decided to invent a fly saw lifting jig.
"I experimented with a few different ways of designing it. With the help of a draftsman and computer, we managed to figure out a design. I made up a model and went to the company with the concept," says Mario.
"The company engineers fine-tuned the design and we started using the jig. Everyone was happy as not only did it prevent injuries, but now only needed one operator instead of two. Since then there hasn"t been a single back injury from changing the saw blades."
Preventing Hearing Loss In Apprentices
When invited to give a speech to aspiring apprentices at Warrawong High School, Mario was surprised to discover that hearing safety equipment was not provided to industrial art students and teachers.
As a direct result of his letters to the government, the school was provided with the appropriate protection equipment.
The school now has a hearing conservation program and One Steel supported Mario's initiative by providing an engineer as an advisor.
Toolbox Meetings
Rather than just reacting to a workplace accident, Mario has introduced risk management strategies in an effort to be proactive about workplace safety.
Regular toolbox meetings are held to discuss issues and come up with new ways to promote safety. One of these initiatives is the Safety Walk, which has become a highly successful strategy for making workers aware of safe work practices.
"Every day a nominated worker and supervisor do a walk around the factory floor, observing how their colleagues are working. A report is made that notes all the safety breaches, such as someone not using their grinder correctly or not wearing their safety glasses," says Mario.
"In the early days it was a bit difficult as people felt they were spying on their workmates, but now it has been going for 12 months and people are very supportive as there have been no accidents in this time and no lost time injury. Previously we had an injury every few weeks."
Mario has also spearheaded the introduction of a safety induction program for new workers and the implementation of a safety register for all chemicals brought on the premises.
He is constantly on the lookout for new ways to improve safety and gains immense satisfaction from the unblemished OHS record of his workplace.
Insurance Australia Group (IAG) - A Winning OHS Management System
Insurance Australia Group (IAG) was awarded best workplace health and safety management system at the 2005 WorkCover NSW Safe Work Awards. Here we outline the strategies behind their success.
Management Commitment
Management support at the most senior level has been critical to the success of IAG's OHS management system.
In 2003 IAG established an Executive OHS Steering Committee, headed by the company's CEO, who also assigned himself as the organisation's Chief Safety Officer.
The committee is responsible for overseeing the development of OHS initiatives that are achievable, measurable and in line with corporate targets.
"When our CEO came on board he had a strong belief that safety was important and an integral part of the business," says IAG Workplace Health and Safety Consultant, Louise Saule.
"Once we got this senior management commitment, things really took off. Before we had been chipping away gradually but we weren"t seeing the results."
Employee Participation
It became clear from a number of focus groups that IAG ran with their employees that there was a poor awareness of OHS in the organisation and a real absence of regular OHS communication. There was also a lack of ownership and accountability for OHS activities, particularly at a manager and employee level.
To address this issue, IAG decided to implement a worksite safety brand that could be embraced by all their employees.
"We had a big launch with competitions and got the employees involved with naming the brand. They selected the name "Be-Safe", so it was something that they owned," says Ms Saule.
"Be-Safe was incorporated with a simplified risk management approach. It was an effective way for us to engage our people in safety issues, when previously they weren't involved in the process."
"We established a newsletter, Be Safe News, which gets emailed to all our employees, safety personnel and managers."
Promoting Safety Personnel
IAG already had a structure of safety personnel in place, but there was poor recognition among staff as to who these personnel were.
"We had an OHS representative, a First Aid officer, and a Fire Warden in every worksite, but they had a low visibility. We decided to renew this representative structure by developing posters and other visual material to show our OHS structure. Every OHS representative in the workplace now has an identifier on their workstation so that people can easily see who they are," says Ms Saule.
Technology As A Tool
There was a poor awareness among staff about where to find safety information on the intranet, so IAG decided to embrace technology and use it to improve the safety culture.
Work was done on revitalising the intranet and the way they mapped their safety documents, making them easier to find and download.
"Following the online enablement of some of our key forms, like our Accident and Incident form, we saw an immediate impact in terms of increased reporting," says Ms Saule.
IAG also introduced an online self-assessment tool called Risk Ratar. Essentially an improved version of a hazard inspection checklist, it is an online worksite check completed by IAG's OHS representatives on a quarterly basis.
Also being rolled out is an online system check, which will enable centre managers to monitor how well they have implemented safety systems at a local level. A tagging system attached to the Risk Ratar ensures the inspection schedules are complied with.
Online Training
OHS online training was introduced, and again linked to IAG's corporate objectives. The training is regularly monitored by The Executive Steering Committee and targets were introduced to achieve an improvement in training results.
"From our 11,000 employees, 85 per cent have gone through the training, and it is mandatory for all new staff," says Ms Saule.
The competency-based training includes a general OHS Principles of Practice module that covers general orientation, how to report incidents, consultation structure and emergency procedures.
There is also a manual handling module that focuses on lifting, carrying and moving, as well as a workstation module that looks at the ergonomics for office based employees.
Strong Documentation
Now that IAG has a strong OHS management system in place, they are turning their attention to improving their risk management documentation.
"We have been working on a project to document the hazards for all the divisions, key business units and high risk areas," says Ms Saule.
"Our future direction is to establish an internal audit program that will enable us to continue to monitor and re-improve our safety systems."
IAG In Profile
IAG is one of Australia's leading general insurers, with 11,000 employees spread over nearly 300 worksites Australia-wide. Their top safety hazards include slips, trips and falls, manual handling and motor vehicle accidents.
Since introducing their OHS Management system, IAG has achieved a 57 per cent reduction in total incurred workers compensation costs, a 22 per cent reduction in lost time injury frequency rates and a significant improvement in incident-to-claims ratio in the last financial year.
IAG has been recognised by the St James Ethics Centre in their Corporate Responsibility Index, which showed an increase in safety performance from 58 per cent to 90 per cent over the last 12 months.
The Stairmate Fall Prevention System
Builders can now transport tools and equipment to an upper storey without risk of falling, thanks to the development of StairmateTM, an innovative fall prevention system.
Awarded winning entry in the best solution to identified workplace health and safety issue category of the WorkCover NSW Safe Work Awards 2005, the Stairmate was initially developed by Hunter Valley builder, John Wilson, to create a safe workplace for his own employees.
"I decided there must be a better and safer way of accessing a second level and bringing up tools and materials than trundling up and down a ladder," says Mr Wilson.
"It was then I came up with the idea of replacing an aluminium ladder with aluminium stairs. I knew stairs would be quicker and safer to climb, and builders could legally use them to carry up their equipment."
The Stairmate is made up of modular components, comprising the stair flights and supporting platforms that interlock to adapt to each individual stairwell space. Each stairwell on site is assessed during project planning, and the compatible Stairmate components (ie, stair flights and platform lengths/heights required to suit the stair space) are delivered and positioned in the stair space.
It is the second successful height safety invention for Fallstop, the company John founded in 2003. His first invention, the Fallstop temporary handrail system, has received accolades in the Engineers Australia Awards, the Housing Industry Association's Product Innovation Award and the HIA Product Innovation Award.
"When I developed the Fallstop handrail system there was nothing on the market like it. I was working as a builder with six apprentices and decided to develop a guard rail system around the building to prevent falls from upper levels. I developed it for my own business but then realised its commercial potential," says Mr Wilson.
His next invention due for release is a void system around stairwells to prevent workers falling down the stair void, but first John hopes to concentrate on making the Stairmate a commercial success.
"We've had nothing but great feedback from the builders who have used the Stairmate. By eliminating the need for access ladders, it removes the hazard and wasted time and improves workplace safety control. I know it will take some time to catch on, but I strongly believe it is an innovation that will have long term benefits for the construction industry."
