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Best Practices in Workplace Surveillance

Maximizing the Use of BLS Methods & Data for On-Going Work Injury & Illness Surveillance

Donald V. Lassiter

Workplace Setting: All workplaces, including individual companies and national industries.

Summary of Surveillance Program: The program to be described is an industry-based approach for performing work injury and illness surveillance based on BLS methods, codes and procedures. The program utilizes modified case coding techniques developed by the BLS in the SDS and ROSH programs to code OSHA recordable cases on an annual survey basis. Over the past 20 years this approach has been tailored for use by individual companies and several national industries (e.g., chemical industry and semiconductor industry). The program also includes an international component for U.S.-based companies which seek to incorporate OSHA recordkeeping on a worldwide basis.

Summary of Findings Demonstrating Usefulness: Since inception of the program, participating companies have had access to a source of credible information and data associated with work injuries and illnesses in their industry which have detailed case coding including:

• Type of accident or exposure
• Nature of injury or illness
• Source of injury or illness
• Part of body affected
• Primary cause of injury or illness
• Demographic variables (i.e., gender, DOB, DOH, job, department etc.)
• Lost time (lost and restricted workdays)
• Memo concerning specific information (e.g., specific chemical, tool etc.) associated with event

Data analyses and reporting provide participating companies with, literally, hundreds of individual benchmarks (including incidence rates) for assessing the work injury and illness experience of employees.

Communication Hazards and Risks in the Workplace: Individual companies/facilities are able to measure risk directly from national survey results based on the incidence rates developed from annual survey results. Hence, individual facilities can identify jobs, work areas, processes etc., of greater and lesser risks in comparison with their national industry (i.e., SIC code), as a whole.

Implications for Small Business or Hard-to-Reach Populations: The program demonstrates the value of industry trade associations in providing such programs for member companies. At the trade association level, member company annual dues can be adjusted involving only slight increases to provide support for such a program, thus allowing even the smallest of the member companies to participate.

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NOTE: This document is provided for historical purposes only.