Tag: workplace injuries

A Worker is Injured on the Job – What Are the First Steps to Take?

Injured on the Job? What to do first.
Injured on the Job? What to do first.

As a leading supplier of material handling equipment, one of our main goals at DJ Products is helping to improve workplace safety. If an employee becomes injured on the job, your response can be a critical factor in limiting the severity of the incident.

Use this checklist to make sure you’re following the appropriate steps to handle a workplace injury.

1. Obtain Medical Attention

At this point, the employee’s health and physical attention should be your overriding concern. Prompt medical attention can mitigate injuries and reassures workers of your interest in their well-being.

Call 911 if you even suspect the injury is serious. It’s best to err on the side of caution. If the injury is obviously minor, you should still encourage the employee to seek medical care.

2. Document the Incident

You’ll need to provide detailed reports for Workers’ Compensation as well as any information required by your company’s specific policies. Don’t forget to take pictures and interview any employees who were involved as witnesses.

Injured employees have the right to file a claim, so provide them with the form promptly and report it to your workers’ compensation insurance company. Never give information to anyone but your insurance carrier and their attorneys.

3. Welcome the Employee Back to Work

Terminating or penalizing an employee for an workers’ compensation claim can open your company up to major repercussions.

4. Take Steps to Prevent Future Incidents

How could the accident have been avoided? Evaluate the situation and make any necessary changes.

DJ Products: Your First-Choice Supplier of Material Handling Equipment

Our battery-powered tugs and movers minimize risk of injury from pushing and pulling, the number one cause of workplace injuries. Visit our website for more information.

What to Know and Do When OSHA Makes a Surprise Visit

What to Know and Do When OSHA Makes a Surprise Visit
What to Know and Do When OSHA Makes a Surprise Visit

Does your warehouse maintain appropriate safety standards? Is your material handling equipment in good working order? An OSHA inspection can occur when you least expect it, so use these guidelines to be prepared at a moment’s notice.

During the Opening Conference

– Wait until designated management personnel are on site.

– Ask for a copy of the complaint and determine whether the inspection is safety- or industry hygiene-related.

– Designate an employee representative. If your warehouse is organized, a union official may serve. If not, choose a member of your safety committee.

– Limit the scope of the investigation to areas corresponding to the complaint.

During the Walk-Around

– Stay with the inspector at all times, but involve as few others as possible.

– Provide information only when asked, and don’t go beyond the parameters of the questions.

– Take pictures of anything the inspector photographs.

– Keep copies of any documents requested by the inspector and take detailed notes of the walk-through, recording the areas inspected, how much time was spent in each and the names of any employees who were interviewed.

– Repair minor violations on the spot to show good faith.

– If the inspection is related to industrial hygiene, find out what tests OSHA will be conducting and consider having simultaneous testing done by a third party.

During the Closing Conference

– Listen carefully and take notes.

– Be conservative when establishing timelines for correcting any violations.

– Refrain from arguing with the inspector.

– Discuss your company’s established safety programs to demonstrate your commitment to good health and safe working conditions.

Material Handling Equipment that Exceeds OSHA Standards

Ergonomics are not regulated by OSHA, so use of our material handling equipment shows your concern for the health and safety of your employees. Visit our website for more information.

The most Common Accidents are often the most Avoidable

When a warehouse or material handling accident is mentioned it often conjures up images of something serious, like a large rack collapse or a forklift that’s been driven off of a dock.  Though these are accidents that certainly can and do occur, they are in reality much more rare than the most common type of accident seen in warehousing – the trip (or slip) and fall.

When your employees have to physically carry materials from one location to another (locations that are often on different levels), lines of vision can get impaired making it difficult or impossible to see obstacles, spills or alterations in the surface that could lead to a nasty fall.  The potential for injury when a fall occurs, when the subject is carrying something, is greater due to the fact that the person can’t easily brace themselves for the impact because their hands are occupied.

These potentially dangerous accidents could easily be avoided if your material handlers were using equipment that was ergonomically designed for moving material rather than having to manually move it.  DJ Products carries a wide array of equipment that is safe and reliable and that will greatly lessen the chances of dangerous accidents in your warehouse.  The lifts and carts from DJ Products will quickly move material (much more than could be manually moved by an individual) and will put it in the proper position for your employees to lift.  Since the lifts are doing the work, your employees can focus and concentrate on the path they are traveling which will drastically reduce the chances of a trip or slip and fall accident.

When you can effectively eliminate the most common accidents from your work environment, you make it a much safer place for your employees.  You’ll lose less man hours to injury and increase your employee’s productivity, which can also do wonders for your bottom line.

Ergonomics Should Drive Injury-Reduction Plan

Today we continue our September 15 post on developing a proactive plan to reduce costly workplace injuries.

2. Set priorities.

After you have determined activities and areas that carry a high risk of injury, set priorities for initiating improvements. Activities resulting in the most severe and most frequent injuries should receive the highest priority, followed by those garnering the highest incidence of worker complaint. Other factors to be considered include technical and financial resources at your disposal and the difficulty in implementing improvements. Be sure to include worker ideas in your plan. Develop a timeframe for making improvements. Communicate the plan and timeline to managers and workers.

3. Implement improvements

Ergonomics — improving the fit between worker tasks and worker capabilities — should drive implementation of your injury-reduction plan. Manual handling of materials and products should be reduced or eliminated wherever possible. Operations and processes can often be combined or restructured to reduce manual tasks. Task procedures can be modified to reduce the strain of unavoidable manual tasks. Ergonomically-designed equipment can eliminate or dramatically decrease the need for physical effort. Don’t neglect proper training for new equipment, procedures, processes, etc.

4. Follow up.

After implementation of each improvement and after allowing for a reasonable adjustment period, it is important to follow up with an evaluation of effectiveness. Review reports and data for signs that injuries, fatigue, discomfort, complaints and risk factors have been reduced or eliminated. Talk to workers to see whether improvements have been accepted and assimilated, that training has been sufficient, and whether there are new complaints. Look for new problems that may have been resulted from the changes made. Refine your plan and made additional improvements as necessary. 

The technical specialists at DJ Products can assist you in evaluating the ergonomic needs of your business. DJ Products manufactures a wide range of ergonomically designed carts, pushers and tugs designed to eliminate and reduce worker injuries. Contact a DJ Products specialist today to find out how you can use ergonomic equipment to reduce injuries in your workplace.

Proactive Problem Solving Reduces Workplace Injuries

Reducing workplace injuries is every responsible business owner’s goal. Not only do you value your employees’ health and safety, but the cost of ignoring workplace safety — high medical, insurance, workers’ compensation and lost man-hour costs — can be staggering. It pays to be proactive in looking for potential injury-causing problems and coming up with ergonomic solutions that improve the fit between the work and the worker.

Developing a proactive plan to reduce workplace injuries is a four-step process:

  1. Observe and question
  2. Set priorities
  3. Implement improvements
  4. Follow up

1. Observe and question.

Look for clues to possible problem areas in available statistical data. Check injury reports for patterns that indicate higher injury rates for certain tasks or in certain areas. OSHA logs, worker reports and complaints, absence rates, and workers’ compensation reports are good starting points. Ask if your workers’ compensation insurance carrier provides workplace assessment surveys as part of their risk-management services.  

Look at production reports for bottleneck areas. Check quality control reports for poor quality product or service. Problems can indicate areas where workers are having difficulty completing tasks effectively under current conditions. The root cause of such problems is often poorly designed equipment or task procedures.

Spend some time following the entire process of your business from start to finish. Pay particular attention to areas highlighted by the data review. Observe the way workers do their jobs. Watch for risk factors such as awkward postures, repetitive motions, forceful exertions, pressure points or extended periods spent in the same position. Watch for signs of worker discomfort or pain such as self-restricting movements, efforts not to move certain body parts or massaging hands, arms, legs, necks or backs. Pay attention to unnecessary handling and duplication of material or product movement.

Look for ways in which workers have modified standard procedures to make it easier to do their work, including modifications to tools, equipment, workstations or task performance. Talk to managers but also talk to the workers who actually perform the tasks. Ask workers how they would change the work process, operations, tools or equipment to make their jobs less physically demanding and more efficient. You’ll get a clear idea of what isn’t working and may get some excellent suggestions for improvement.

Continued next time