There are several expenses involved in running successful senior living facilities and assisted living workers compensation costs reflect a significant portion of those operating expenditures. For many, managing staff injuries is paramount to the success of their business. In fact, studies show that long-term care facilities tend to have employee injury rates that are far greater than average for businesses with similar-sized staffs, and that back injuries are a major contributor to claims against these institutions. Workers, while lifting and moving patients, incur these injuries for the most part.
Other risk factors that workers in nursing homes face include:
According to OSHA, excessive exposure to these risk factors can result in a variety of disorders in affected workers. These conditions known as musculoskeletal disorders, or MSDs, include lower back pain, sciatica, rotator cuff injuries, epicondylitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome. OSHA has guidelines for nursing home and assisted living clients to help minimize work-related musculoskeletal disorders losses and keep employees safe at their facilities.
To counter these issues that affect employees, employers need to develop some stringent safety programs, assign responsibilities to designated staff members to achieve those goals, while providing the necessary resources.
Employees should be involved in the process of solving problems
Having workers help with hazard identification assistance will help to enhance worker motivation and job satisfaction, and lead to greater acceptance once changes are made in the work environment. Employees can also submit suggestions and voice any concerns, participate in the design of work areas, procedures, and training, help evaluate equipment and respond to employee surveys.
Nursing homes that take the time to recognize problems by establishing systematic methods for identifying ergonomics concerns in their workplace are more successful in injury prevention. Information about where problems or potential problems may occur in nursing homes can be obtained from a variety of sources, including reports of workers' compensation claims, accident investigation reports, insurance company reports, employee interviews and surveys. Once information is obtained, it can be used to identify and evaluate elements of jobs that are associated with problems, reducing injuries and maintaining a healthier work staff. And when injuries do occur, assisted living workers compensation coverage helps in getting those workers healthy and ready to return to work.
Other risk factors that workers in nursing homes face include:
Slips, trips and falls – which often involve failure to clean up spills
Force - which includes the physical effort required to perform some tasks
Repetition - performing the same motion continually or frequently, and
Awkward postures - assuming positions that place undue stress on the body (such as reaching above shoulder height, kneeling, squatting, leaning over a bed, or twisting the torso while lifting)
According to OSHA, excessive exposure to these risk factors can result in a variety of disorders in affected workers. These conditions known as musculoskeletal disorders, or MSDs, include lower back pain, sciatica, rotator cuff injuries, epicondylitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome. OSHA has guidelines for nursing home and assisted living clients to help minimize work-related musculoskeletal disorders losses and keep employees safe at their facilities.
To counter these issues that affect employees, employers need to develop some stringent safety programs, assign responsibilities to designated staff members to achieve those goals, while providing the necessary resources.
Employees should be involved in the process of solving problems
Having workers help with hazard identification assistance will help to enhance worker motivation and job satisfaction, and lead to greater acceptance once changes are made in the work environment. Employees can also submit suggestions and voice any concerns, participate in the design of work areas, procedures, and training, help evaluate equipment and respond to employee surveys.
Nursing homes that take the time to recognize problems by establishing systematic methods for identifying ergonomics concerns in their workplace are more successful in injury prevention. Information about where problems or potential problems may occur in nursing homes can be obtained from a variety of sources, including reports of workers' compensation claims, accident investigation reports, insurance company reports, employee interviews and surveys. Once information is obtained, it can be used to identify and evaluate elements of jobs that are associated with problems, reducing injuries and maintaining a healthier work staff. And when injuries do occur, assisted living workers compensation coverage helps in getting those workers healthy and ready to return to work.