Definitions

Disability Sector OHS Benchmarking Exercise – Definitions

No. of hours worked: the total hours worked by all paid employees in each service area should be recorded here.  This will hopefully be readily available from your payroll as it would be the basis on which pays would be calculated.  If you cannot provide it for the service breakdown on the form please provide for your service descriptions and I will interpret (note this may create some inaccuracies so please don’t just provide an acronym).  FTE and your daily work hours will suffice if this is all you can get.

No. of reported staff incidents – use this section to report the number of incident and injury reports received from paid staff members only (including supported employees) whether it could have resulted in an injury but did not, is a minor injury only and requires first aid only or no treatment at all, or is a more serious resulting in medical treatment etc. 

Where a staff member works part-time in different service areas their FTE should be calculated for each and their injury only recorded under the service area they were working at the time of the injury.  Do not include injuries to volunteers, contractors, visitors or clients for the purposes of this exercise even though you should be capturing them for internal purposes.  Whilst recording client incidents is useful there are too many variables to allow for reliable benchmarking with other organisations.

Based on the hours worked/FTE info this information will be converted into frequency  rate so that comparisons are possible.

No. of lost time injuries – record for each service the number of reported staff injuries which resulted in time lost from work during this quarter.

No. of workers compensation claims - Where the above injury has required more than a ‘notification only’ report to the insurer they should be counted i.e. there are treatment costs, lost time etc. and a claim number is generated with associated costs.  This data will be converted into a percentage of injuries for comparison purposes.

No. of days/shifts lost for current incidents – include days or shifts lost for injuries which occurred in the reporting quarter only up to last day of quarter – record as a fraction if relevant.  A duration rate will be calculated.  Also record total days lost in this quarter for each injury cause.

Cause of injury –

• Lift/bend/push/pull/carry object – manual handling of an object such as a piece of furniture, bucket etc.
• Lift/bend/push/pull/carry person – manual handling of a client with or without equipment
• Static or repetitive posture or arm usage – the old Overuse category.  Static means holding the one position such as bent back, forward reach for an extended period and this causes reported pain.  Also include any injury reportedly due to repetitive movement.
• Workplace violence – include intended actual or threatened assaults or abuse from clients, staff or others which have resulted in a staff member completing an injury report.  Do not include a staff member being struck by uncontrolled movements of a client as this goes under involuntary movements and do not include client behavioural issues which resulted in injury or potential injury as this now goes under client behaviour.
• Slip/trip/fall indoors – include those occurring inside a workplace whether office, client’s home, group home etc.
• Slip/trip/fall outdoors – include those occurring whilst at external venues or whilst travelling by foot to/from work locations or to/from work.
• Psychological/stress – bullying/harassment – include those related to staff/staff/supervisor bullying
• Psychological/stress – workload/organisation - include all reports whether claim has been accepted or not for disciplinary, workload or other work-related causes.
• Hazardous substances/material – include for chemical contact as well as contact with dust or other substances resulting in reported respiratory or skin problems.
• Biological agency – a new name for the old Infectious diseases category – include reported potential exposures only whether it has resulted in a claim or not e.g. reported needlestick injury which has not resulted in a positive test result.
• Entrapment in equipment/machinery – if any injury is reported to have resulted from being caught or pinched by part of the machine or equipment and this causes lacerations, amputations, bruising or worse then record here.  Include any machinery or equipment including office, warehouse, home based or wheelchairs.
• Strike/struck by equipment/machinery/furniture – where the employee hits an object or part of machine or is struck by an object or part of machine other than above and this causes lacerations, amputations, bruising or worse then record here.  Include any machinery or equipment including office, warehouse, home based or wheelchairs.
• Contact with hot surface/material or sun exposure – the old Burn/scald category – exposure to hot object, fire or steam resulting in burn or scald to any part of body and also includes sun-burn.
• Electrical shock – include electric shock and electrocution
• Hand-held tools – usually result in cuts, grazes and bruises requiring dressings, first aid or medical attention and tools may range from knife to screw-driver etc.
• Vehicle accident – work vehicle – include centre based staff vehicles and vehicles used to transport clients.
• Vehicle accident – own vehicle – include travel to and from work and travel for work when using own vehicle
• Superficial – cuts and bruises not caused by any of the above.
• Client involuntary movement – staff member injured by client who has exhibited an involuntary movement i.e. spasm etc which has come in contact with staff member – not workplace violence.
• Client behaviour – incident which occurs as a result of a client’s behaviour which was not intentionally aimed at causing harm e.g. client spitting or over zealous undertaking of an activity resulting in staff injury or potential injury.
• Other – specify a cause if you cannot fit into one of the above remembering to look at cause rather than injury resulting.  Note that we have not included a category for journey accidents on buses and trains as generally outside of control but please record here for total figures.

Positive Indicators:

No. of investigations undertaken – include formal documented investigations of the above injuries only.

No. of changes/additions to risk controls – include changes to safe work procedures, PPE, guarding, supervision ratio etc as a result of the above injuries.

No. of risk assessments/inspections undertaken – include workplace inspections of your premises or other host employer premises as well as client home assessments, risk assessments on tasks or activities, venue assessments etc.  Again this data will fluctuate depending on your OHS Plan and when you undertake such assessments and will be more useful comparing from quarter to quarter.  However, it is a useful internal performance measure.

No. of OHS training sessions – includes OHS induction as well as specific OHS training whether conducted internally or externally such as first aid, manual handling, preventing workplace violence etc.

Business streams/service types:

Education – for centre-based educational support services

Employment – Disability Enterprises – supported employees and other employees should be included.

Case management, treatment, early intervention and advocacy services – centre based client services including provision of information, centre based assessment services, play and treatment activities, provision of assistive device services including communication services etc.

Accommodation support – include staff working in group homes