On the Audit Trail: Managing Slips, Trips, and Falls
Barbara Jo Ruble, QEP, CPEA, President, Baltimore, MD
Many sites I audit have admirably reduced their rate of severe injuries over the past several years, but they commonly report a nagging level of slip, trip, and fall incidents (typically falls on the same level, as opposed to falls from heights). Many of these falls result in recordable injuries or lost time cases and clients routinely lament their inability to reduce the number and severity of such incidents. In discussions with colleagues, we've identified some causes and solutions to this problem.
Accident Investigation and Analysis: Most accident investigations into slips and falls conclude that employee carelessness was the root cause. I find those conclusions doubtful and suggest the investigation team should dig deeper. More savvy investigators identify causes such as liquid spills that weren't cleaned up because housekeeping staff hadn't filled an empty paper-towel dispenser, or walkways that were icy because the grounds crew didn't spread de-icing pellets until workers were already arriving for the first shift. Even these investigations need to dig a step or two deeper to find out why such tasks were not being performed in a timely manner.
Trend Analysis-Location, Timing, and Conditions: Some organizations that successfully reduced the frequency of slip and fall accidents carefully analyzed accident trends over time. They plotted and correlated accidents by location, time of day, and conditions such as temperature, weather, and lighting. Such analyses led them to change flooring, the location of equipment or material storage, the arrangement of doors and walkways, or the timing of operations such as cleaning, snow removal, or certain maintenance activities. By analyzing the movements of employees in a certain assembly operation, one client discovered that employees in this area typically walked about two miles a day. By rearranging the assembly process, the client drastically reduced the distance employees traveled to accomplish their tasks, thereby reducing the opportunity for and incidences of slip and fall accidents. (I don't know if the money saved on injuries paid for gym memberships so those employees could make up for their lost exercise!)
Helpful Practices: Our audits have uncovered some good ideas for reducing or eliminating slip, trip, and fall hazards. Maybe some of the following will work for your organization.
- Provide pop-up warning signs: Keep signs (such as those you see in your local grocery or big-box store) near areas where liquid spills might happen (e.g., cafeterias, break rooms, high-traffic areas) or where slippery floors tend to occur. Wall-mounted dispensers make for safe and convenient storage. Anyone who notices or causes a spill can deploy the warning sign immediately. Regardless of who does the clean-up, others in the area know to take caution.
- Improve grounds keeping: Increase the frequency of exterior grounds keeping services during leaf and acorn season to keep walkways free of tripping hazards. Make sure that snow removal services are timed to have walkways cleared before employees arrive in the morning.
- Reduce tripping hazards from electrical cords: As a simple fix, bundle electrical cords under desks to prevent them from sneaking under cubicle partitions and into aisles. More elaborate fixes include conference room tables with built-in electrical and data receptacles so that meeting participants-or visiting auditors-don't create tripping hazards when plugging their laptops into side wall receptacles. An exemplary machine shop redid all of their electrical wiring to use drop-down connections for cords and plug equipment. Compressed air lines also had drop-down connections, thus eliminating the typical maze of electrical cords and pressurized hoses snaking around the floor.
- Revise employee behavior: Implement behavior-based safety programs that empower employees to watch out for each other. Enforce basic safety rules (using the handrail when ascending or descending stairs; taking the elevator when carrying anything).
Perhaps with more thorough root cause analysis and more creative modifications to our workplace and procedures, we can start to shift our thinking about slips and falls away from the "Accidents Happen" mentality toward the same "Injury Prevention" mindset we take for other safety programs, such as machine guarding, fall protection, or personal protective equipment. The potential cost savings would seem to justify the effort.
Barbara Jo Ruble, QEP, CPEA is the President of Specialty Technical Consultants. She has more than 30 years of experience helping clients in a wide variety of industries to develop, assess, and improve their EHS management systems and compliance programs. She is the primary author of OHSAS 18001/OSHA-VPP Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems: A Complete Implementation Guide, published by Specialty Technical Publishers of Vancouver, Canada. To discuss this article or for more information about the OHSAS Guide, contact Barb at bruble@stcenv.com or at 410-625-1952.
