1 Wilmington Regional Safety & Health School July 31, 2015 Office of State Human Resources (OSHR) John R. Bogner, Jr., Director Division of Safety, Health & Workers’ Compensation

2 Be a Hazard Hero

Over 12,000 state employees injured each year. {Cabinet, Council of State agencies and State Universities plus Department of Public Instruction} Over $145 Million Dollars paid out annually. {Cabinet, Council of State agencies and Universities plus Department of Public Instruction} Governor’s Executive Order No.13 OSHR establishes Division of Safety, Health & Workers Compensation October

Focus: Close Out Open Cases Currently open claims have cost the State over $1 billion Paid out $769 million on 1,265 open cases over 5+ years old 86% of costs are from the 1,265 cases Average of 44% of cases are carried over each year 4

June 4, 2013 Governor Pat McCrory signed an Executive Order No. 13, which established guidelines for the Health and Safety Leadership Team within his administration. Referred as “Leadership Team”, the executive order stated that the Leadership Team shall consist of eleven (11) members. 5

The Governor appointed members of his cabinet to serve as Chair, Secretary Tony Tata, Department of Transportation and Vice Chair, Secretary Frank Perry, Department of Public Safety. The Leadership Team is responsible to measure the safety performance of state government agencies and prepare an annual report to the Governor. 6

 The challenge presented to the Leadership Team was to instill a safety culture.  The Leadership Team started to implement this process by being very aggressive in the promotion of safety and hazard awareness led by all Agency Secretaries/Commissioners.  Continue to promote safety and workers’ compensation updates at all Human Resource Directors and Deputy Directors meetings.  Getting the involvement from the Statewide Safety and Health Steering Committee. 7

Establish a business environment that safety and health of state employees is of the utmost importance. Management must believe that workplace safety is accomplished through example, involvement, training and support. 8

Unsafe work practices have serious business consequences relating to medical costs, lost time from work and workers’ compensation costs. 9

The state needs to take an aggressive three prong approach to Reduce Costs… 1.Improve employee hazard recognition to reduce incidents 2.Better case management from state agencies and TPA working with OSHR 3.Legislative reform to contain workers compensation benefits 10 $ Safety Manage WC Cases Legislative Changes

Task 1:  Agencies required to have a 10% reduction in injury claims by the end of FY16 Task 2:  Hazard Recognition Training Program for Supervisors and Employees 11

Task 3:  Incident/Accident Investigation and Reporting Program Task 4:  Hazard Identification & Prevention: Module of Slips, Trips & Falls Task 5:  Statewide Safety & Health Conference 12

13 Lack of proper incident investigations. The Leadership Team assigned agencies with sending all employee incident and supervisor investigation reports to OSHR to review and determine if the injuries reported were thoroughly investigated. It was discovered that the Employee Incident and Supervisor Investigation Reports were incomplete. Many agencies had not properly trained supervisors on incident investigation techniques and determining root cause analysis. Inability to maintain an effective workers’ compensation cost containment system. Management’s inability to effectively administer workers’ compensation cases has been a contributing factor in the state’s inability to maintain an efficient cost containment workers’ compensation system.

14 Reporting of claims in an untimely manner. When a supervisor delays providing documentation of an incident to a Workers’ Compensation Administrator (WCA), the injury data may not be entered into the claims management system in a timely manner. This delay increases lag time, which may result in greater claim cost because an injured employee failed to receive prompt medical treatment. Employees lack the knowledge to identify hazards. Unsafe conditions and unsafe acts still remain at work sites due to employees not being trained to identify and eliminate these unsafe conditions or their unsafe acts. The culture in most state agencies is management assumes that employees recognize hazards; however, the reality is the majority of state employees are never taught how to recognize a hazard.

15 Management not making safety and workers’ compensation a priority. Executive agencies have experienced instability due to administrative changes, budget cuts, and expectations to do more with fewer employees. All of these factors have affected agencies’ ability to properly manage an effective workers’ compensation cost containment program, resulting in an increase in injuries and rising workers’ compensation costs. Agencies have not implemented a strong “Return to Work” policy. Agencies and universities are not properly utilizing the OSHR “Return to Work” policy, therefore foregoing opportunities to get employees back to work. This is evidenced by rising indemnity costs that have increased over $10,000,000 since fiscal year 2012.

16 Open workers’ compensation cases are not being closed. Due to the absence of a certified budget line item for workers compensation, cases are not being timely closed. State agencies have historically utilized lapsed salary funding to settle workers’ compensation cases; however, this funding is inadequate to empower agencies to timely close cases. Lack of oversight, monitoring, training, education and claims management, along with insufficient funding, has resulted in cases remaining open subjecting the state to potential additional costs. The majority of Workers’ Compensation Administrators have multiple responsibilities, lack of authority and insufficient training related to case management. These multiple responsibilities have resulted in the Workers’ Compensation Administrators not being able to adequately manage their agencies’ workers’ compensation cases.

17 50 State Employees 541 Workers’ Compensation Claims Total Cost of Claims $6,897,934

Leadership Team Assure the Management support remains high ZERO tolerance for injuries Promote Hazard Hero: Hazards.NC.Gov Continue to focus on workplace task hazard & risk awareness Training & Education of all employees 18

Statewide Safety & Health Committee Encourage involvement from all agencies & universities Sharing of best practices Provide ongoing professional education for safety personnel 19

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21 NOTE: Actuarial & Predictive Analysis FY $93.4M FY $98 M FY 18 - $102.6 M

Struck By Struck Against Caught Between Caught In Over Exertion Exposure Contacted By Contact With Caught On Fall-to-Below Fall same Elevation Repetitive Motion 22 Management CommitmentEmployee Involvement Hazard RecognitionEffective Training/Education

23 TAKE SAFETY SERIOUSLY Slips, trips, and falls may seem insignificant or even the basis for funny stories to tell to your friends, but they are no laughing matter. Consider these facts:  Slips, trips, and falls are the second leading cause of accidental death in the United States and result in approximately 12,000 deaths per year.  In just three years, North Carolina state workers had over 4,274 reported slips, trips, or falls resulting in $35 million in direct costs. Statistics suggest that there are two to three times more slips, trips, and falls that go unreported in the workplace or that occur at home. Unlike other hazards, most slips, trips, and falls are preventable! You have the knowledge and power to identify, correct, and help yourself, your colleagues, and your friends stay safe.

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26 I am a Hazard Hero Thank you………… Questions??? John R. Bogner Jr. Director Safety, Health & Workers’ Compensation I am a Hazard Hero Thank you………… Questions??? John R. Bogner Jr. Director Safety, Health & Workers’ Compensation