Posts Tagged ‘solo workers’

Risk, compensability, mousing elbow, medical costs, and other news briefs

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Cavalcade of Risk – Emily Holbrook is hosting the 131st edition of Cavalcade of Risk at one of our favorite risk-related blogs, Risk Management Monitor. Check it out!
Compensability issues – In disputes as to whether an employee’s injury or illness is eligible for benefits, courts look at the issues of whether the injury arose in the course and scope of employment. Roberto Ceniceros posts that while course and scope have generally been regarded as a single doctrine, that may be changing with the challenges posed by an increasingly mobile work force. See his blog post: “Course and scope” separated.
Safety for the solitary worker – Speaking of a mobile work force, do you have workers who work alone? Solitary work poses unique safety challenges. See Safety Daily Advisor’s tips for keeping solo workers safe.
Claims IT systems webinar – Health Strategy Associates has an upcoming webinar that may be of interest to some of our readers: the results of HSA’s First Annual Survey of Workers Comp Claims IT Systems. If the sponsoring organization’s name isn’t familiar to you, it’s our fellow blogger and friend Joe Paduda’s firm – he’s sponsoring the seminar in conjunction with colleague Sandy Blunt. If this interests you, act now – the webinar is scheduled for tomorrow!
Mining safety, one year later – On last week’s anniversary of the West Virginia Big Branch mine disaster that claimed 29 lives, the latimes.com looks at progress – or lack of progress – in enhancing miner safety: Families of dead miners feel let down by Washington. The story reports that in the past year, a safety bill has failed and the backlog of safety cases has grown.
Top HR issuesWorkforce covers the top 10 HR concerns as reported by the Employers Resource Association. These issues are compiled from the more than 8,000 hotline calls made by the organization’s membership of 1,300 companies in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
Mousing elbow – As we incorporate more and more devices in our work-world, technology-related maladies seem to multiply. Greg LaRochelle of the MEMIC Safety Blog talks about Mousing Elbow and how to prevent it. See also Blackberry Thumb, Cell Phone Elbow, IPod Ear. Also, see our ergo tips for setting up a workstation.
Medical costs – Can making physicians aware of the costs for procedures help to curtail costs? Katherine Hobson of WSJ’s Health Blog reports on an interesting research project that showed a decrease in expenditures for routine lab tests when physicians were made aware of the overall costs for such procedures: “Cosimi tells the Health Blog the study represents “a good first step, just to show that there’s a problem, and a potential solution.” The goal would be to establish guidelines for proper testing. And he says it’s not just blood work that could benefit from this kind of approach. At his own transplant unit, he noticed changes in prescribing behavior simply by posting the very different costs of two similar antibiotics.”
Hidden costs – We all know the health risks of smoking and that smoking can contribute to comorbidities that hinder worker recovery. But there are lesser known risks that can contribute to claim costs, In PropertyCasualty360, Zack Craft of Total Medical Solutions talks about how smoking can damage sensitive medical equipment too, and a factor that adjusters should consider.
Wage & hour violations? There’s an app for that – If you feel like your employees are tracking you, they may well be. Employment attorney Michael Fox posts about the Department of Labor’s new timesheet i-phone app, which is intended to help employees track the hours they work and the wages they are owed. The DOL says that, “This information could prove invaluable during a Wage and Hour Division investigation when an employer has failed to maintain accurate employment records.”

The Lonely Death of Octavio Godinez

Friday, June 23rd, 2006

Octavio Godinez, 27, had been working as a trim carpenter with his father-in-law at a home in Coosaw Creek, South Carolina. He was shaping a shim for a door when something happened – it appears that his hand slipped and he cut himself. Normally, his father-in-law would have been there to help, but the latter had gone off for supplies. Godinez was working by himself.
He wrapped the wound as best he could, got into his truck and headed toward Summerville Medical Center, a nearby hospital. He called his father-in-law and told him about the injury. They planned to meet up at the hospital.
Godinez didn’t make it. The truck went off the road and hit a tree. There were no skid marks or other indications that Godinez had tried to brake before the crash, so in all likelihood, he had passed out from a loss of blood. The cut had severed an artery. He might have been dead before the truck hit the tree.
Working Alone
This tale raises a set of issues that many safety plans do not contemplate: the worker who is totally alone, all by himself, in a job setting brimming with hazards. Under normal circumstances, trim carpentry is not at the high end of the risk spectrum. Nonetheless, plenty of things can go wrong. The work can involve heights, lifting, and the use of power and sharp cutting tools. Cuts, strains, slips and falls are normal occurrences. Working alone substantially magnifies every risk. Conventional safety protocals require that injured employees report immediately to a supervisor. But what if there is no supervisor? Normally, Godinez had a partner, but as it happened, his partner was not there when the injury occurred.
I wonder if Godinez knew exactly where the hospital was – he was from out of state (Indiana) and was visiting with his in-laws to earn some money for his wife and son. I wonder if he had any training in emergency first aid. I wonder what kind of medical supplies were available at the jobsite. I wonder why he decided to drive himself, as opposed to calling for an ambulance. Did he have any insurance or was he an “independent contractor,” side by side with his father-in-law, another “independent contractor.” What went through his mind as he tried to figure out what to do?
It’s tempting to pass this death off as circumstantial, simply result of bad luck and bad timing. That may be true. But in the world of risk management, we pride ourselves on being able to anticipate almost every possibility. We believe that any risk can be mitigated through careful planning. I’m not sure what specific steps were needed to prevent this death, but it reminds me that solitary workers need to have a plan. I wonder how many of them actually do.