Budgeting for Safety
10/4/2005
 by Randy Gieseking (email)
Safety Management Group
This article is intended to get you thinking about your safety budget plan for 2006. No you didn't get blurred vision, you read it correctly, safety budget plan. I have talked to many facilities managers over the years that always complete the budgeting exercise; however, never include a line item for safety. Safety training, personal protective equipment, safety signs, machine guarding, or general safety maintenance are all areas that should be thought of and included when developing a budget to manage your facilities day to day operations. Budgeting for safety has not been taught in traditional business management. As the understanding of benefits of safety in the workplace improves this trend is changing. Safety is now a component of most modern curriculum in business and management schools; however in practice the safety budget continues to be an afterthought. Don't get caught up with the idea that safety is a trivial cost associated with your business. Planning for safety should be right up there with planning for staffing, utilities, and preventive maintenance programs.
You might be asking yourself, 'What types of things should I be budgeting for when it comes to safety'' To help answer this question, we will briefly discuss three indicators you can look at that might help you begin to develop your safety budget. Trending of incident data & safety observations, employee feedback, and compliance data collected by the government are the three areas we will explore.
Incident & Safety Observation Trending
Are you using information learned from incidents and safety observations to improve your safety program' If not, I highly recommend that you start using this information to not only track and monitor performance, but to assist you with your safety planning for the coming year.
Trending of data does take time and commitment; however, it can provide you with invaluable information about your safety program. For example, our staff was recently working on a large construction project that allowed the tradesmen to utilize eye protection based on the task they were performing, rather than a 100% safety glasses policy. After several months, the team noted a very high frequency of eye related incidents. We then implemented a 100% safety glasses policy, which, resulted in a major reduction of injuries related to the eye. This is a simple example, however, my point being there is cost associated with this change. Cost for training the staff, cost to develop and write a policy, and equipment related cost associated with the purchase of safety glasses and side shields.
You might be asking yourself where can I go to collect such data' If you have an onsite health and safety staff, you might start with them. They should be able to provide you with data related to safety observations as well as injury trending information. If you have no health and safety staff information available, I would try to solicit support from your employee health services group (team that helps manage the workers compensation claims), and/or the group who is responsible for investigating incidents that occur in your facilities. Your health services team should be able to provide you with a high level report on injuries by type, area, and associated cost. I recommend using incident data and safety observation data as your first indicator when developing a safety budget for your facility.
Listen to your Employees
How many times do we miss opportunities to improve our operations because we have not taken the time to fully understand a suggestion from one of our employees' I hope you can answer that with a 'not very many times' response. The workers can be one of the best sources of information; they deal with issues daily and have the best understanding of the problems. Listening to your staff about ideas to improve safety in their work area and then acting on that feedback can result in a tremendous morale and confidence boost for your safety program. If you have a proactive safety program, there is a good probability that you are already doing this, if not, consider a quick survey of your employees before you begin your budgeting exercise for the year. You can use the four questions below to help get you started:
1. Have you had any safety related incidents in the past year' If yes, explain.
2. Do you have any safety related concerns regarding your job and/or work area' If yes, explain.
3. Do you have any ideas or recommendations for improving safety in your work area' If yes, what would you improve and how'
4. Do you have all of the necessary Personal Protective Equipment to protect yourself while working' If no, explain.
Don't forget to tap into your most valuable resource!
OSHA Compliance Data
Last but not least, you can also consult the most current data available regarding the top 10 Most Cited Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards for the healthcare industry. This list is available by taking a trip on the worldwide web to www.osha.gov and then following the links to health and safety topics and healthcare facilities. Remember this is only an indicator for your budget research providing you with information related to how the industry could improve..
What does this mean to you' The categories are arranged in order by frequency of violation for the health care industry. Therefore, if you were to receive an OSHA audit, it is very likely that you may be deficient in one or more of these areas based on industry performance. I am not implying that you should budget for an OSHA audit, rather take this information and begin to evaluate your internal safety programs to ensure that you are in compliance with the regulations.
Think & Plan
Today safety planning is a must do. We have to continue to improve our operations and promote safety in each and every health care facility. Ultimately a safe operation will result in higher quality service for the patients and communities you serve.
I will leave you with a few questions to think about as you begin budgeting for the coming year.
' Do I have a written safety program'
' Do I have written policies/procedures as required per 29 CFR Part 1910 (OSHA Standards for General Industry)'
' Do I have Personal Protective Equipment required for the tasks performed'
' Do I have the appropriate equipment for the job, (Lockout/tagout equipment, ladders, scaffolding, containment carts, etc.)'
' Do I have the necessary signs for posting'
' Are we providing training as required per the standards'
' How do we recognize safe work behaviors and safe departments'
Good luck with your budget planning!
This article was reprinted from the Q3 issue of ISHE Issues, the publication of the Indiana Society for Healthcare Engineering.
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