Workplace Safety Update - May 2013
Hennepin County, Minnesota sent this bulletin at 05/20/2013 11:29 AM CDT
Hennepin County wins awards at Minnesota Safety Council Conference.
The Human Services and Public Health Department received the Award of Honor at the Governer's Safety Awards Luncheon on May 16th. Bianca Ward Virnig, EHS Specialist and Jon Schoonmaker, Safety Coordinator for HSPHD were there to accept the award. HSPHD has a long term commitment to the safety and health of their employees. This is the sixth year they have won this prestigious award. Kudos to Cathy Lindberg, Jon Schoonmaker, Diane Perkins, Susan Moore, Bianca Ward Virnig and their multiple safety committee members! Excellent job on preventing workplace injuries and keeping a commitment to safety. Taxpayer Services Department received the Award of Outstanding Achievement. Jeff Strand and his entire safety committee should be recognized as well for their efforts over the past year.
First Report of Injury and OSHA Recordkeeping Database.
A meeting was held on Monday, May 13th to review all the changes that have taken place since we first introduced this to the FRI Contacts. A few key issues still remain: 1) migrating HCL and the Sheriff's Office through Active Directory (so they can access and complete the form), 2) Tennessen Warning and employee acknowledgement, 3) Marketing this to all employees and supervisors.
A decision was made to make this system "live" as it stands today (see attachment titled FRI FlowChart). The First Report of Injury form, once processed by the FRI Contact will go electronically to Nancy Rys in Workers' Compensation. A secondary system was setup with an online fillable form that can be submitted if the system is down for some reason.
Currently the OSHA Recordkeeping portion of the database is done, but needs to be tweaked. In order to preserve confidentiality, departments will have to request a copy of their OSHA Log from Workplace Safety.
First Field Safety course is active in APEX. More details on changes to online training courses.
Troy Forcier and Rita Hutton worked with Capella University to complete and publish our first Field Safety course for departments. Highlights of the program include: interactive illistrations, a new character in County Joe, multiple site safety issues for staff in the field, etc. See the attachment titled "Marketing Flyer on Online Field Safety Working Outdoors" for information about the course. Look for the new online Field Safety - Working Within a Client's Home module by the end of June as well.
For a peak at ALL our changes, please view the attachment titled "Summary of Online Training Changes".
Quick Review of 2012 Reported Injuries.
Take a few minutes and take a look at the summary I assembled for 2012 reporting injuries. Overall, the number of injuries reported went down (we usually average around 430 per year --- this past year was 385). See the attachment titled "2012 Review of Reported Injuries".
May is National Electrical Safety Month.
Amazing statistics: "Each year, electrical failures are the cause of 43,900 home fires, resulting in 438 deaths, 1,430 injuries and $1.47 billion in property damage."
Please take a minute to look at the following links as they may help your safety committtee.
Main page: http://esfi.org/
Resources: http://esfi.org/index.cfm/pid/10257
Take a Second Look! Slip, Trip and Fall Prevention Posters
Don't Carry It All: http://cantata/propsvcs/wsed/Prevent%20Falls%20Poster%20-%20Dont%20carry%20it%20all.pdf
Slips, Trips and Falls Are No Joke: http://cantata/propsvcs/wsed/Prevent%20Falls%20Poster%20-%20STF%20are%20no%20joke.pdf
Texts and Emails Can Wait: http://cantata/propsvcs/wsed/Prevent%20Falls%20Poster%20-%20Texts%20and%20Emails%20can%20wait.pdf
Thank you!
Michael
612-348-4855 or cell 612-290-7241
Michael.Tupy@co.hennepin.mn.us
http://cantata/propsvcs/wsed/index.htm
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