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Specialty Lines
The PComp Board of Directors met in June, and for the planning day of the meeting I prepared a PComp History presentation. We have several relatively new board members, and I thought a review of how we got to 2014 would be helpful. I enjoyed digging through our records (most are in electronic format now!). There were a couple of things I had forgotten from 21+ years ago.
First, I did not recall how bad the workers' compensation market was for public entities in the early 1990's. By the time PComp started in 1993, it was expected the annual premium increase in work comp premiums would be about 20 percent! PComp has done a good job of keeping rates stable, especially when compared to those expectations!
Second, it was a good reminder of the people that were essential to the creation of PComp. First was Terry Barham, who headed up the Willis claims staff. He really drove the progress which resulted in PComp. Terry passed away much too young, and PComp's claims experience award is named in his honor.
Terry did one other great thing - he introduced us to Paul Zeigler. As PComp's legal counsel, Paul was essential to our interactions and success with regulatory approvals and designed our bylaws and defense counsel panel. Paul is the only legal counsel the PComp board has ever had. He has announced his retirement at the end of 2014, after serving PComp and its members for 21 years. Paul will be missed, and his work on behalf of the pool is much appreciated.
Make sure you contact us when you need help with something,
John Sallade
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National Safety Council Award for CCAP's Insurance Programs
CCAP's Insurance Programs have been chosen by the National Safety Council as a Defensive Driving Course Award recipient for outstanding training efforts in 2013. CCAP is receiving the Trend Setter Award. Trend Setter recognition is presented to those Defensive Driving Courses training centers that constantly strive to achieve a high status of performance. The award will be given at the annual awards' dinner at the National Safety Council Conference in San Diego, on September 13. Last year, CCAP received an Honorable Mention for our efforts in 2012.
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Stop By and Visit CCAP's Insurance Programs!
Representatives from CCAP's insurance programs staff will be exhibiting at several events in the coming months. We will attend the annual Pennsylvania Sheriffs Association Conference in Warren on July 23 - 25. We will also be exhibiting at the CCAP Annual Conference in Lancaster on August 3 - 6. Stop by and let us know how things are going.
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| PELICAN Insurance Introduces New Coverages and a New Membership Group
As the nursing home landscape has changed in Pennsylvania, PELICAN Insurance has been faced with dwindling membership. While PELICAN's rates and service has always been top notch, PELICAN has been negatively impacted by counties selling their nursing homes. In an attempt to maintain its core membership, several years ago PELICAN amended its Rules and Regulations (Bylaws) to allow former county-owned facilities that had become for-profits to remain in the program. PELICAN also became licensed to write insurance in Maryland. As counties continue to face the difficult decisions of whether or not to sell their facilities, PELICAN has yet again taken action to adapt to this changing environment.
At its May 8 Subscribers Advisory Council (SAC) meeting, the PELICAN SAC expanded the potential membership to include all for-profit facilities (non-profits have always been eligible) in both Pennsylvania and Maryland. These types of homes are now eligible for membership in PELICAN. And while PELICAN's underwriting standards have not been, nor will they be compromised, this opens a whole new market for PELICAN. By having the opportunity to add more members, it will provide the program with the ability to stabilize rates should more counties decide to sell their facilities.
The other big news coming out of the May 8 meeting is that the SAC approved PELICAN entering into a partnership with Beazley Insurance and the Philadelphia Insurance Company to begin to offer other lines of insurance to its current and prospective members. In addition to the Professional and General Liability coverages that PELICAN has always provided, PELICAN now offers Property, Cyber, Auto, Crime and Employment Practices Liability coverage.
These additional coverages give PELICAN the ability to quote all lines of insurance any nursing care facility needs (with the exception of workers' compensation). PELICAN can now be a "one stop shop" for all nursing home insurance needs, and be able to provide nursing homes with the ability to be an owner in a company and share in the profits of its success, instead of just another insured who is helping to increase the profits of a commercial insurance company.
If you would like to know more about PELICAN and what it has to offer, please feel free to contact Dave Harman.
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| Keep it Simple to Prevent Sprains and Strains
The simplest way of preventing sprains and strains injuries in your workplace is to develop a risk management plan which identifies, assesses, controls and evaluates safety hazards and risks.
Identify the risk
Be aware of the triggers in your workplace which may result in risk of injury. These include changes in the workplace such as new equipment, procedures or schedules and indications that something may be wrong including employees reporting discomfort and highlighting better ways of performing manual tasks.
Make a list of problem manual tasks in your workplace for further assessment.
Assess the risk
There are four major risk factors which contribute to sprains and strains injuries from manual tasks;
- Forceful exertions put high levels of stress on muscles and body tissues. An example is lifting a very heavy or awkward load from the ground, such as lifting a person or a 80 pound sack of flour.
- Awkward and static postures lead to employees having to use more muscular effort to do a job. Awkward postures can include a bent back, raised arm or keeping the body in the same position for extended periods of time.
- Repetition and duration involves making the same type of movements over and over including frequent lifting or holding a position for a long time increases the risk of injury.
- Vibration through the whole body. Some examples include driving a truck which may damage the back or the use of hand tools which may contribute to disorders of the wrist and arm.
Assessing the risk includes analyzing the task to find out what risk factors are causing the problem. To analyze the task:
- Look at the task during normal working conditions.
- Check out the work process, tools, equipment and workstation layout.
- Talk to the employees doing the job and their supervisors to see if they have any clues to analyze the risk factors.
- Consult with your insurer's loss control specialist.
Control the risk
Look at the risk factors and decide which measures need to be implemented based on your priorities. Determine the type of solutions to control risk. Engineering controls are the preferred method of controlling risk because they are permanent and can prevent the risk or reduce it substantially.
- Engineering controls include: Job design - making changes to the work station, tools or equipment, or the way a job is done. Mechanical aids - provide lifting aids such as forklifts and hand trucks which reduce the effort of employees doing the job.
- Administrative controls include: Rotating employees to minimize the time a given employee is assigned to a job. Task-specific training - ensuring that employees are trained in their specific work, such as using tools and mechanical aids, maintenance programs - regularly servicing and maintaining tools and equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE) - providing PPE such as safety gloves or glasses as needed. Look at all the options available to you and choose the best.
Implement the controls by "piloting" control strategies before putting them into place permanently. Develop work procedures to formalize the controls, communicate with employees the reasons for the change, and provide training and supervision to help employees reach competence and compliance.
Evaluate the controls
It is important to evaluate whether the controls are in place and are being used correctly. After a few months measure the effectiveness of the controls by consulting with your employees, observing work activities and undertaking walk through surveys.
Find out whether the controls implemented, achieved the desired outcome of eliminating or minimizing the risk, and ensure that the new controls have not introduced any new risk factors.
For more information, contact the CCAP Loss Control Department at (800)-895-9039; or email us at:
Gary Nicholson, Loss Control Services Manager
Maureen McMahon, Loss Control Specialist
Andrew Smith, Loss Control Specialist
Dennis Cutler, Loss Control Specialist
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| Building Inspections and Safety Audits
Safety Audits are conducted for the purpose of health, safety and fire hazard identification. During these surveys, assessments are made for compliance to applicable regulations and fire codes, as well as the detection of unsafe hazards.
It is recommended that a team be established to conduct safety audit. Each team should represent a variety of departments. To ensure neutrality and objectivity, it is suggested that team members should not audit their own department. Audit Team members should review all existing safety program material in advance of the safety audit.
Work Site Safety Audits
Audits of work sites are conducted for the purpose of health, safety and fire hazard identification. During these surveys, assessments are made for compliance to applicable building and fire codes and the detection of unsafe hazards.
Work site audits should also provide an evaluation of compliance to ergonomics, slip/trip/fall exposures, use of personal protective equipment where necessary, etc. Ergonomics, the study of work and the relationships of various stressors on the individual, can be identified through the building audits. The objective of ergonomics is to adapt the job and workplace to the worker by designing tasks, workstations, tools and equipment to the abilities of the worker.
The Big Four
There are four basic questions a safety audit should answer. The auditors should be familiar with both the county program and the various local, state and federal requirements.
All safety audit comments, recommendations and corrective actions should focus on these four questions:
1. Does the program cover all county, regulatory and
best industry practice requirements?
2. Are the program requirements being met?
3. Is there documented proof of compliance?
4. Is employee training effective? Can and do they
apply to specific safe behaviors?
Develop recommended actions for each deficient condition of the program. Careful forethought should be applied to ensure that this is not a process that simply makes more rules, or additional record keeping requirements. Examine the manner and means in which deficient elements are managed, to determine if there is a simpler procedure that can be employed.
Development of corrective action should involve the managers and supervisors who will be required to execute the corrections. Set priorities based on the level of hazard. All corrective actions should be assigned a completion and review date. Records of completed corrective actions should be reviewed through the normal management chain and then be filed for use during the next audit.
In order for building and safety audits to be effective, they should be conducted on a regular basis and mitigate loss exposures before an accident occurs.
For more information, contact the CCAP Loss Control Department at (800) 895-9039; or email us at:
Gary Nicholson, Loss Control Services Manager
Maureen McMahon, Loss Control Specialist
Andrew Smith, Loss Control Specialist
Dennis Cutler, Loss Control Specialist
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Upcoming Events
COMCARE Board Meeting Conference Call
July 30, 2014, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
CCAP Office, Harrisburg PCoRP Board Meeting
September 5, 2014, All day
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| Quote of the Month
"Change is scary, but not
changing is risky."
- Andy Grove
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