It didn’t take a crystal ball to predict that guidance and teamwork would help the unit-based teams at South Bay Medical Center in Southern California reduce workplace injuries.

A trio of workplace leaders created the Safety Champions program, which educates management and labor leads from each unit-based team (UBT) on how to do safety observations, ergonomic assessments and incident investigations. Between 2008 and today, as the program got established, South Bay’s workplace safety scores improved dramatically: Its injury rate has decreased by 38% between October 2008 and May 2009.

“We started with the teams that had high injury rates—Environmental Services (EVS), Medical Surgery, Pediatrics, and Emergency—and encouraged them to find a labor and management representative for their UBT,” said safety coordinator Fred Tinamisan, RN, who represents UNAC on the team of three spearheading the program. Juanita Gonzales, the Comprehensive Workplace Safety Systems project manager II at South Bay Medical Center, and Portia Haizlip, SCAL senior ergonomic consultant, complete the team.

The champions have brief training sessions monthly, and they are responsible for educating their team about safety, communicating the monthly metrics, creating awareness about the latest injuries and how to prevent them, and requesting visits from the ergonomics specialist.

Getting employees involved

Working safely often means looking out for each other, which is why employee involvement is the key to seeing results.

The Medical Surgery team, in fact, has created a program called “I Got Your Back.” Employees look out for each other and hold each other accountable.

Environmental Services used to have daily accidents, but as of May 2009, the department had gone nearly 90 days without an injury.

“The employees have taken ownership of the program,” Gonzales said. “It makes a greater impact when it’s employee to employee.”

The enthusiasm for safety was evident at a recent Workplace Safety fair in June. The first-time event had about 300 employees visit the booths—about 100 more than planners expected.

Humorous approach to serious issue

The fair used humor to remind employees about the importance of keeping safety in mind at all times. At the safety observation booth, Brenda Thomas, LVN, used a crystal ball to “predict” that a fall injury would occur from a spill, and then asked employees what should be done. The answer? They should isolate the spill area, put out a “Wet Floor” sign, and call housekeeping for a clean up.

At another booth, a different hazard was demonstrated.  MRI technician Alcee Hebert sat perched on the edge of his chair; losing his balance, he tumbled to the floor into a chalk outline. The Incident Investigation Team arrived on the scene and analyzed the root causes that led to the event to prevent it from happening again. Alcee, they concluded, would have been safer sitting properly with his back against the backrest.

Haizlip said the visibility of the team and the support of union and management leadership from the top down sped up the improvements.