Take Action

Implement Leading Practices

Implement an Integrated Disability Prevention and Management System

Employ specialists to create a management system approach to building a culture of health and wellness to prevent and manage disability (i.e. Certified Disability Management Professional, Certified Return to Work Coordinator, Occupational Health Nurse, Ergonomist, etc).
Conduct a workplace health and safety risk assessment. Ascertain major injury trends, conduct needs assessment; analyse indicators.
Work with Health and Safety Committee to develop and implement a comprehensive risk management program that integrates organizational measures ? patient/client, employee, public, environmental, quality, and fiscal.
Link real-time health and safety measures within a balanced scorecard and provide progress reports to the board.
Create an open non-punitive risk reporting culture and create user-friendly reporting processes to encourage reporting by all stakeholders and to quickly analyze and communicate risks. Provide a variety of methods such as anonymous reporting (i.e. telephone, web).
Implement tools to manage disabilities using evidence-informed disability duration guidelines.
Develop a workplace violence prevention program that includes client aggression management programs. Measures to include hazard prevention controls, methods of reporting, investigating and responding to incidents of violence. All settings should implement policies to address violence, abuse and harassment in the workplace.
Develop and implement a Critical Incident Stress Management Program. Include dealing with adverse events.
Reduce variability through standardized equipment and operating procedures.
Implement mode effect analysis ? an assessment process to examine steps in processes where there may be undesirable variation resulting in employee and/or patient/client risks.
Educate risk managers, safety personnel and QWL/Safety team members in root cause analysis.

Organizations must move beyond regulatory compliance and responding to the current health and safety crisis, to create a positive health and safety culture in a system of care.

Worker safety relies on the precautionary principle that reasonable action to reduce risk should not await scientific certainty.

Violence prevention is a key area for focus as providers are at a relatively high risk of violence in the workplace. The risk of health providers experiencing violence may be 16 times greater than the risk for other service workers. Health providers are more likely to be attacked at work than prison guards, police officers, transport workers, retail or bank employees.