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Proceedings of the 16th World Congress on Ergonomics (IEA2006), Maastricht, The Netherlands, July 10-14, 2006. Pikaar RN, Koningsveld EAP, Settels PJM, eds., Madison, WI: International Ergonomics Association, 2006 Jul; :1-5
Slip, trip and fall (STF) prevention in health care workers
Collins-JW; Bell-JL; Gronqvist-RA; Courtney-TK; Sorock-GS; Chang-WR; Wolf-L; Chiou-S; Evanoff-B
Background: Hospitals are diverse work environments with same-level STF incidence rates that are 67% higher than all other U.S. private industry. Objective: To conduct laboratory and field research to identify risk factors for STF incidents and evaluate a ‘best practices’ STF prevention program in three hospitals. Design: Study methods included: 1) a descriptive analysis of six-years of pre-intervention STF incident data, 2) a case followback field study to examine transient risk factors using a case-crossover design, 3) laboratory evaluations of flooring and footwear, and 4) on-site hazard assessments, and 5) a field study to evaluate a STF prevention program. Results: 1) The descriptive analysis identified n=314 workers’ compensation claims for STF injuries, 2) the follow-back field study identified contaminants and surface transitions as transient risk factors, 3) the laboratory study identified promising slip-resistant shoes and flooring, and 4) preliminary analyses of 9 years of workers’ compensation data indicate that the multifaceted ‘best practices’ STF prevention program resulted in an estimated 25% reduction in workers’ compensation injury incidence rates in the three study hospitals. Conclusions: Food service workers and nursing staff are at highest risk of STF injury. This study successfully applied multiple research methods to identify key design elements of a targeted STF prevention program.