Impacts of CIHR-funded research: Workplace Health

[ Table of Contents ]

Improving health and safety of health-care professionals
B.C. project saves millions

Overview

In the 1980s, the health-care sector accounted for more time-loss claim than any other industry in British Columbia. Dr. Annalee Yassi of the University of British Columbia worked with a team that included unions and employers to improve occupational health and safety for health-care workers in British Columbia. One project studied the effectiveness of an overhead lift system for reducing staff injuries and decreasing staff and patient risk and discomfort. It found a 40% reduction in total claims costs, an 82% reduction in life and transfer claims costs and an 83% reduction in lost hours due to lift and transfer injuries. Front-line workers reported less pain and discomfort and patients and their families expressed general satisfaction. Another study found that implementing the Prevention and Early Active Return-to-Work Safely (PEARS) program reduced the time taken to return to work after a musculoskeletal injury and reduced the average time-loss-per-person per year for registered nurses to 3.6 from 4.9 days, with an associated reduction in compensation payments of more than $176,000, one-third less than the previous year.

Impact

The B.C. Ministry of Health and the Worker's Compensation Board allotted more than $20 million to the widespread implementation of lifts throughout the province and signed an agreement to implement appropriate no-unsafe-lift policies. PEARS programs are now running in 11 sites across British Columbia, serving more than 37,000 health-care workers.

First Published

Evidence in action, acting on evidence: The CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research Knowledge Translation Casebook, 2006

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PLAD – more than a patterned fabric
Device helps people with back injuries return to work

Overview

Back injuries can keep someone off the job for more than two years. Dr. Joan Stevenson of Queen's University and her PhD student at the time, Mohammad Abdoli (now a professor at Ryerson University) have developed the PLAD – Personal Lift Augmentation Device – to help people with back injuries return to work sooner. The PLAD, which workers wear on their backs and that is braced at the shoulders, hips and knees, works with back muscles to allow people to lift objects with less muscle force. The PLAD was pilot-tested by a small group of assembly-line workers at a major Ontario automotive assembly plant found that the PLAD reduced back muscle force requirements by 20%; 80% of the workers said they would wear the PLAD for similar work. The device is now slated for larger-scale testing by the company, both in the automotive and other industries.

Impact

The PLAD has been licensed to PeakWorks Inc., an Ontario company specializing in industrial safety products, which is seeking to get the PLAD onto the market as soon as possible.

First Published

CIHR Health Research Results, 2004-05; updated 2009