2004 OSHSPA Report > Strategic plans: focusing on performance
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Strategic plans: focusing on performance

Alaska

Alaska is in the second year of its five-year strategic plan. The three major strategic goals are:
  • improve workplace safety and health in both the public and private sectors as evidenced by a reduction in the rate of illnesses, injuries and fatalities.
  • promote a safety and health culture in the Alaskan workplace (both public and private sectors) through compliance assistance, cooperative programs and consultation assistance.
  • secure public confidence through excellence in the development and delivery of Alaska Occupational Safety and Health programs and services.
In addition to construction (a national emphasis industry), Alaska is also targeting the transportation and warehousing industry as a result of workers’ compensation data analysis.

Alaska produced tremendous results in fiscal-year 2004 with a 75 percent reduction in workplace fatalities and a 29 percent reduction in the lost-workday illness and injury rate (LWDII). In addition, the LWDII rates in transportation and construction were reduced by 8 percent and 32 percent, respectively.

Arizona

Arizona’s strategic plan contains five annual performance goals within two major goals of the plan. Construction continues to be one of the high-hazard industries nationwide and ADOSH has directed significant resources to reducing the number of work-related injuries, illnesses and fatalities in Arizona’s construction industry.

ADOSH is committed to building and maintaining partnerships with Arizona organizations and individuals with an interest in workplace safety and health. ADOSH recognizes that the division’s effectiveness in reducing workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities depends on the active involvement and support provided by management, labor and government.

Arizona has devoted significant resources to increase public awareness of the importance of workplace safety and health by offering partnerships to employers, providing compliance assistance services, improving outreach efforts and encouraging active worker participation. By increasing public confidence in the division, ADOSH expects employers and employees to be more willing to use the services provided that will help to eliminate hazards and provide a safe working environment. In addition, Arizona established a close relationship with the Spanish-speaking media and ADOSH has had articles published periodically to get the word out about its services, accidents that have occurred and how they can be prevented.

California

Cal/OSHA met most of its performance goals stated in its strategic plan. Rates of injuries, illnesses and fatalities demonstrate a declining trend in agriculture, high-hazard industries and residential construction. While the number of fatalities in construction increased slightly, the rate of fatalities in residential construction declined from 7.4 per 100,000 workers in 2001, to 6.7 per 100,000 workers in 2003.

It should be noted Cal/OSHA has maintained a high-profile presence in the agricultural industry since 1992, whereas the construction emphasis program is fairly new. Cal/OSHA believes the construction industry will improve its health and safety performance as Cal/OSHA continues to make its enforcement and consultation presence in construction a higher priority.

The number of Hispanic-worker deaths in California continues to decline. Specifically, the number of Hispanic-worker deaths in California during 2003 was down 15.7 percent – from 191 in 2001, to 161 in 2003. The California downtrend exceeded the national downtrend during the same period, which showed a 12 percent decrease.

As part of California’s high-hazard consultative assistance and high-hazard enforcement, various efficacy outcome measures have been obtained during the years from employers to measure pre-intervention and post-intervention data. Among these measures are injury and illness rates, injury and illness severity rates, number and type of preventable work-related injuries and illnesses, and pertinent data about workers’ claims made and costs per claim.

In reviewing efficacy measures from a sample of high-hazard employers, it has been determined that both the high-hazard consultation program and the high-hazard enforcement program have been effective interventions in reducing injuries, illnesses and workers’ compensation claims. These programs have a continuing role to play as part of Cal/OSHA’s efforts to eliminate workplace hazards, as well as to reduce injuries and illnesses.

Indiana

In 2004, Indiana OSHA continued working to reduce occupational hazards through direct interventions. Specific activities included emphasis programs in construction for trenches, scaffolding and fall hazards. Targeted industries were based on the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data and included:
  • motor-vehicle parts and accessories;
  • millwork, plywood and structural members;
  • refrigeration and machinery services.
When possible, joint inspections were conducted to promote cross-training.

Kentucky

In 2003, Kentucky’s total case rate in construction fell 27.6 percent, dropping below the national rates and continuing Kentucky’s ongoing downward trend of injuries and illnesses in construction.

Maryland

Maryland’s strategic management plan focuses on the following goals: reduce occupational hazards through direct interventions; promote a safety and health culture through compliance assistance, cooperative programs and strong leadership; secure public confidence through excellence in the development and delivery of Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH) programs and services.

In fiscal-year 2004, Maryland conducted approximately 1,125 inspections in construction and general industry emphasis areas. Of those inspections, 32 percent were specifically targeted to strategic emphasis areas. Ninety-seven percent of the fatality and catastrophe investigations were initiated by MOSH within one working day of notification. Employers could not be located/contacted in the 3 percent that were initiated after one working day. Ninety percent of serious complaints were initiated by MOSH within five working days of notification.

Michigan

The MIOSHA strategic plan for fiscal-year 2004 through 2008 calls for targeting both outreach and enforcement resources toward some of the most hazardous industries in Michigan, including: construction, furniture and fixtures, primary metals, fabricated metal products, industrial machine and equipment, and transportation equipment. MIOSHA also directed efforts toward reducing ergonomic-related injuries and illnesses, amputations and noise-induced hearing loss.

MIOSHA developed its plan with substantial stakeholder input and used the team concept to develop the performance goals. The goal is to reduce injuries and illnesses in targeted industries by 20 percent at the end of the five-year plan. Workplace fatalities continue to decrease in most areas.

Minnesota

MNOSHA’s five-year strategic goals for fiscal-year 2004 through 2008 support and guide its efforts during the next several years. The goals are to:
  • reduce occupational hazards through compliance inspections;
  • promote a safety and health culture through compliance assistance, outreach, cooperative programs and strong leadership; and
  • strengthen and improve MNOSHA’s infrastructure.
With few exceptions, MNOSHA’s fiscal-year 2004 performance goals were achieved.

New Jersey

New Jersey has developed a five-year strategic plan with three major strategic goals:
  • improve workplace safety and health for all public employees as evidenced by fewer hazards, reduced exposures and fewer injuries, illnesses and fatalities;
  • promote safety and health values in New Jersey’s public-sector workplaces; and
  • secure public confidence through excellence in the development and delivery of programs and services.
Outcomes from implementation of the five-year strategic plan will:
  • reduce the number of worker injuries and illnesses, by focusing statewide attention and resources on the most prevalent types of injuries and illnesses, the most hazardous public occupations and the most hazardous workplaces;
  • increase the public-sector employer and employee awareness of, commitment to and participation in safety and health;
  • improve the response to legal mandates, so workers are provided full protection under the Public Employees Occupational Safety and Health (PEOSH) Act; and
  • increase and improve the number of implemented emergency preparedness/homeland security programs and services, coordinating efforts with federal, state, county and local agencies.
In federal-fiscal-year 2004, the New Jersey DLWD safety enforcement conducted 1,292 inspections: 713 programmed, 54 complaint, three fatality and 522 follow-up inspections in the public sector.

New York

New York’s Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau (PESH) completed its first five-year strategic plan and is now working on its second five-year strategic plan. The goal of the first strategic plan was to reduce workplace injuries by 10 percent in SIC codes 1611, 4111, 805 and 9224. Injury and illness rates decreased in most of the targeted sectors for the first five-year (1999 through 2003) strategic plan. The current strategic plan will continue to focus on three of the high-injury-rate SIC codes. The goal is to further reduce injury rates by 10 percent during the next five years. Outreach efforts for each of these industries included the following.
  • SIC 1611 (heavy construction, except building) – The overall injury rate reduction based on the baseline year (1995) is 13.2 percent, which exceeds the 10 percent goal set for the first five-year strategic plan.

    The local Highway Construction Workgroup has continued to foster partnerships to reduce the injury rate for employees working in SIC code 1611, highway construction. These partnerships primarily include highway departments in villages, towns and counties. Additional partnerships have been created with the New York City DOT, the New York State DOT, the New York Power Authority, the New York State Association of Towns and the New York State Thruway Authority. The local Highway Construction Workgroup also established partnerships with Niagara County Mutual Self Insurance Group and Suffolk County. In coordination with Suffolk County, training was provided about safety hazards experienced in highway construction work settings. The partnership within Niagara County resulted in the analysis of useful risk management/worker compensation insurance data for the benefit of the membership.

  • SIC 805 (county nursing homes and state veterans homes) – Although a steady decrease in the injury rate was seen in 1999, 2000 and 2001, calendar-years 2002 and 2003 showed a gradual reverse in injury rate reduction. Due to changes in the requirements for recording injuries and illnesses in 2002, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has determined data from 2002 and 2003 cannot be compared to previous years. One reason for this is that beginning in 2002, all contaminated needlesticks and sharps injuries must be reported; this was not the case prior to this date. Secondly, the definitions of new case and restricted work activity changed in 2002, which could directly or indirectly affect the injury rate.

    Injury rates in 2003 ranged from two to 57 injuries per 100 full-time employees. Because the committee has developed partnerships with many of the nursing homes that are actively implementing resident-handling programs in their facilities, injury rates from those facilities with either consultation or inspection visits from 1998 through 2003 were compared with those that had no formal PESH visits. Injury rate data showed that those facilities with PESH visits had an overall 7 percent injury rate reduction as compared to those facilities without PESH activity, which had a 7 percent increase in injury rate, representing a 14 percent swing. Nursing homes that requested consultations had an 18.72 percent reduction in injury rates compared to the baseline year (1998).

    The data shows no change in the injury rate from the 1998 baseline at 16.0 to the 2003 injury rate at 16.0. This could lead one to believe the goal of a 10 percent reduction was not met. However, the committee believes the goal was met, because the more telling statistic is the 14 percent swing in rate between facilities that had been visited by PESH and those facilities that were not visited. In addition, there was an 18.72 percent reduction of injury rate in those long-term-care homes that requested and received a PESH consultation. The statistical analysis enabled the committee to focus on those nursing homes with the highest injury rates. Injury rate data from the five nursing homes with the highest injury rates (top 10 percent) was evaluated. These five nursing homes collectively had an injury rate increase of 50 percent during the past five years. These facilities received a letter from PESH outlining their injury rate as compared to other public nursing homes in New York state. They were provided an option to request a comprehensive safety and health consultation or be placed on an inspection list. These visits will be completed in fiscal-year 2005.

    It has been determined by experts in occupational safety and health that resident handling is the largest contributor to nursing home injuries and that implementing a resident-handling program, which eliminates or greatly minimizes the amount of manual lifting of residents, is a most cost effective way to reduce injuries. The committee will continue to coordinate the nursing home community about the impact of resident handling on injury rate reduction and worker compensation costs. This issue will be a focal point of the consultations and/or inspections of the targeted nursing homes.

    Based on the evaluations from past injury prevention conferences, and because the majority of injuries in this SIC code are due to musculoskeletal disorders as a result of manual resident-handling, the main focus of the Injury prevention in long term care facilities conferences in fiscal-year 2004 was on prevention of injuries resulting from resident handling. Other subject areas included slips, trips and falls, and dealing with difficult or combative residents. The presenters at the conferences were nursing home representatives who have successfully reduced work-related injuries and illnesses and were eager to share their strategies for resident lifting, back safety and violence prevention. The nursing home conferences also featured numerous vendors displaying the latest resident-handling equipment.

  • SIC 9224 (fire service) – This workgroup has developed partnerships with more than 600 local fire organizations, firefighter unions, associations and individual fire departments to cooperatively provide training to firefighters. The workgroup has attended and participated in many conferences throughout the state. The group has actively promoted wellness-fitness programs within fire service in an effort to reduce the number and severity of injuries due to cardiopulmonary problems or overexertion. This group has provided training in fit testing and has worked with fire departments in developing written programs that include respiratory protection, bloodborne pathogens and hazard communication. The workgroup has also assisted in preparing organizational statements and accountability programs.

    From the inception of the strategic plan in 1999, SIC 9224 data has been obtained from the NYS Office of Fire Prevention and Control. Due to data processing problems in 2003, injury data for 2003 will not be available for numerous months. When this data becomes available, the rate will be recalculated, but – based on the 2002 injury data – the injury reduction for SIC 9224 has exceeded the five-year goal of 10 percent, with the total firefighter injuries showing an 18.1 percent reduction from the 1997 baseline.

North Carolina

North Carolina is currently pursuing the goals contained in the state’s strategic management plan representing the second five-year strategic planning cycle, which began in fiscal-year 2004. The success of the strategic planning process is reflected in the state’s 4.0 injury and illness rate in 2003. This rate matches the lowest figure ever recorded in North Carolina.

The goals for the current five-year strategic management plan include continued reduction of the state’s injury and illness rate and reduction of the workplace fatality rate. One strategy for reaching these goals is by placing emphasis on a number of specific industries and workplace hazards. These include: construction; logging; lumber and wood products, furniture and fixtures; long-term care; lead; and silica. Additional rate reduction strategies include: site-specific targeting of employers with high injury and illness rates; public-sector targeting; safety and health program assistance; partnership development; and expanding the safety and health recognition programs. A multidisciplinary resource allocation, including compliance, consultation, education and training, will also continue to be used.

Oregon

A major focus of Oregon OSHA’s strategic plan has been assisting employers in integrating safety and health management into their culture, specifically through the implementation of effective safety committees. When meeting with employers, both compliance officers and consultants stress the role of safety committees in a comprehensive safety and health management program. In fiscal-year 2004, OR-OSHA consultants worked with safety committees to improve their effectiveness during 80 percent of visits with employers that had an active safety committee.

Oregon OSHA’s workforce education goal was met with 99.5 percent of safety and health workshop attendees rating the training as useful for improving safety and health in their workplace. Oregon OSHA sponsored or cosponsored six conferences during the fiscal year. One hundred percent of conference attendees rated the training as useful.

Oregon OSHA continued to focus on reducing fall hazards, as well as silica and lead in construction exposures. Twenty-seven workshops addressing these targeted hazards were offered during the year, with 238 people attending. Oregon’s fall emphasis program resulted in 693 inspections with 533 violations related to fall hazards. In the area of silica and lead hazards, 20 percent of employees sampled tested higher than the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for silica and 3 percent tested higher than the PEL for lead.

South Carolina

Fiscal-year 2004 was the first year of the new five-year strategic plan. South Carolina met or exceeded all but one goal during the first year. Two goals are to reduce the injury and illness total case rate in both manufacturing and construction by 10 percent (2 percent year). To obtain these five-year goals, South Carolina is focusing resources on industries with the highest rate, based on South Carolina Bureau of Labor Statistics data and other work-related data.

Tennessee

Tennessee OSHA will build on the successes of the first five-year strategic plan by continuing to focus resources on areas of high-hazard employment. Special emphasis will be placed on elimination of carbon monoxide exposure, high noise exposure, methylene chloride exposure, trench and evaluation collapse, and fall hazards. Inspection resources will be concentrated in the construction industry, nursing home and personal care facilities, metal working industries and workplaces with high amputation rates.

Utah

Utah completed the first year of its second five-year strategic plan. The plan essentially mirrors the federal plan. The plan includes a focus on reductions in amputations, ergonomics-related injuries and blood-lead levels; the first-year results achieved significant reductions in each area. Also of note was a 9 percent decrease in the general industry fatality rate.

Virginia

During fiscal-year 2003, Virginia continued its emphasis on high-hazard worksites and remains committed to the same strategic goals as federal OSHA. Virginia finalized its state unique regulation to supersede §§1926.760 (a), (b) and (c) of OSHA’s revised final rule about Fall Protection in Steel Erection. Virginia Occupational Safety and Health (VOSH) changes require fall protection at the 10-foot level, rather than at the 15-foot level; requires workers connecting structural steel be tied off unless the steel is moving in the air; and prohibits the use of controlled decking zones.

VOSH also completed regulatory action to amend its previously federal-identical subparagraph §§1926.950(c)(1)(i), General Requirement for Clearances, Construction of Electric Transmission and Distribution Lines and Equipment standard. This amendment provides identical safety protections for construction electrical-transmission workers equivalent to safety protections already afforded general industry workers performing similar tasks under §1910.269(1)(2)(i).

Washington

Washington’s 2001 through 2005 strategic plan focused on improving workplace safety and health by reducing hazards, injuries, illnesses and fatalities, including several industry-specific initiatives. Other performance measures addressed regulatory improvement, education and outreach, and customer service improvements. Key results include:
  • increased the number of enforcement inspections and consultation visits;
  • increased the number of serious violations and serious hazards identified and corrected;
  • reduced the average compensable claims rate for fixed-site employers visited by WISHA by 7.8 percent more than the decrease for employers with no WISHA activity (the rate for nonfixed-site employers, such as construction and logging, decreased 14.5 percent more for employers visited by WISHA);
  • reduced the rate of fall injuries in residential wood frame construction by 17.5 percent and eye injuries by 29.5 percent;
  • rewrote and redesigned WISHA’s core general safety and health rules to make them much easier to understand and follow (Washington is now rewriting and redesigning hazard and industry-specific safety and health rules, which are available at www.lni.wa.gov/safety/rules/find/default.htm);
  • greatly expanded the use of the Internet to provide outreach and training materials, including online videos, interactive courses, publications that can be downloaded and sample accident prevention programs employers can customize for their business (at www.lni.wa.gov/safety/traintools/default.asp); and
  • decreased the time it takes to issue safety and health citations, and the time it takes to ensure serious hazards and violations are corrected. Together, this has resulted in shorter periods of time that workers are exposed to the hazards identified during inspections and consultations.

Wyoming

Wyoming’s new five-year strategic plan for fiscal-years 2004 through 2008 measures three areas: fatality reduction, reduction in workplace hazards and injuries, and workplace safety culture.

The first strategic goal is to "improve workplace safety and health for all Wyoming workers by reducing fatalities." In the strategic plan, the performance goal is to "reduce workplace fatalities by minimizing occupational hazards, promoting safety and health cultures, and maximizing Workers’ Safety and Compensation Division effectiveness and efficiency."

The second strategic goal is to "improve workplace safety and health for all Wyoming workers as evidenced by fewer hazards, reduced exposures, and fewer injuries and illnesses."

The third strategic goal is to "promote a safety and health culture in Wyoming through a strong and effective consultation program." The strategic plan performance goal is to increase participation in VPP and SHARP.

Excellent success was achieved in meeting the first and third strategic goals, while limited and mixed results were noted with the second goal.

A successful method of reducing claims has been the 75/25 plan, where an employer is offered a 75 percent penalty reduction if workers’ compensation claims are reduced by 25 percent during the following 12 months.

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