Preventing workplace injuries at Kaiser Permanente, Northern California Region: Implementation of an occupational safety analysis approach

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, healthcare is one of the most dangerous industries for workers, often resulting in profound organizational and personal impact. The breadth of healthcare hazards includes exposure to infectious and blood-borne pathogen diseases, radiation, chemicals, gases, common building conditions like slippery floors, poor ergonomic practices when lifting patients, performing office and clinical tasks, and encountering combative patients. By eliminating and mitigating these hazards, injuries can largely be prevented through the use of OSHA's “hierarchy of controls”. One such approach is the Job Safety Analysis (JSA). JSA is an analytical methodology whereby potential and existing hazards in an occupational setting are identified along with their corresponding hierarchical controls. This session will present the development and implementation of a JSA program in Kaiser Permanente's Northern California region. In recognizing the merits of JSA as a major preventive workplace injury approach, Kaiser adopted and enhanced OSHA's JSA methodology and deployed it as the “Occupational Safety Analysis” (OSA) throughout 21 hospitals in Northern California. This session will describe the following design, implementation and adoption program elements and key learnings: • Adoption of OSHA's model • Leadership and stakeholder buy-in at all levels • Implementation of a phased approach, including piloting • Use of injury data to prioritize hospital departments • Leverage other workplace safety initiatives • Use of standard tools for documentation • Engagement of multidisciplinary teams • Ongoing training and communication • Effective utilization of program monitoring tools