Department of Veterans Affairs

1
Department of Veterans Affairs

• Executive Board, National Veterans Affairs
  Council
  
• Frank Denny
• Director, VA Office of Occupational Safety and
  Health
  
• March 21, 2008

2
Executive Board, National Veterans Affairs Council

• Designated Agency Safety and Health Official
  (DASHO)
  
• The Honorable Michael W. Hager - was sworn in as
  Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and
  Administration on November 27, 2007
  
• Office of Occupational Safety and Health
• Administrations (VHA, NCA, VBA) and Other Key
  Officials
  
• Networks
• Facilities

http//www1.va.gov/vasafety/page.cfm?pg3
3

• VA Occupational Safety and Health Web Page
• http//www1.va.gov/vasafety/

4
Executive Board, National Veterans Affairs Council
MISSION STATEMENT - To provide safe and
healthful places and conditions of employment.
VISION STATEMENT - VAs Occupational Safety and
Health (OSH) community is a dynamic, innovative,
flexible organization that understands the
causes, types, and nature of incidents that
result in injuries and illnesses and thus is able
to institute prevention systems."
5
Executive Board, National Veterans Affairs Council

• SHARE Initiative - Safety, Health and Return to
  Employment calls for a reduction in the number of
  injuries and illnesses, and a reduction in lost
  production days.
• These will be used as measurement tools by VA to
  help evaluate the success of the Safety Strategic
  Plan.
  
• Responsibilities
• Reduce the total claim rates by 3 percent per
  year
  
• Reduce the lost time claim rates by 3 percent per
  year
  
• Increase the timely filing of claim notices by 5
  percent per year and
  
• Reduce the lost production days by 1 percent per
  year.

5
6
Executive Board, National Veterans Affairs Council

• Metrics We are very interested in measuring our
  progress and there are four metrics related to
  safety of particular interest. These are
  
• Total Cases Rates (TCR)
• Lost-Time Cases Rates (LTCR)
• Top Three Most Frequent Types/Sources of
  Injuries and
  
• Top Three Most Frequent Causes of Injuries.

6
7
Executive Board, National Veterans Affairs Council

• We will be monitoring the new cases as they are
  one of the base elements along with employee
  employment figures that compose the two
  Presidential safety goals under SHARE - total and
  lost-time claim rate rates. I am committed to
  meeting the Presidential goals under SHARE.
• VA has been meeting one of the two safety goals.
  
  
• Met the Presidents lost-time claim rate and
• Though we had a decline in the total claim rate,
  we did not meet this goal.

7
8
Total Case Rate VA

• Presidential Safety, Health and Return to
  Employment Initiative is to have a reduction of
  total case rates for injuries and illnesses by at
  least 3 per year. The 3 is based on FY 2003
  Baseline provided by Department of Labor, so no
  goal is evident in 2003. Total Case Rate is
  defined as rate of all injury/illness cases per
  100 employees. Data is based on Office of
  Personnel Management (OPM) employment numbers.
  NOTE The projected goals were derived from
  http//www.dol.gov/esa/owcp/dfec/share/Goals2007-
  09.xls. VA for FY 2007 is above the National
  Government Total claim rate of 3.32.

9
Lost-Time Case Rate VA

• Presidential Safety, Health and Return to
  Employment Initiative is to have a reduction of
  lost-time case rates for injuries and illnesses
  by at least 3 per year. The 3 is based on FY
  2003 Baseline provided by Department of Labor, so
  no goal is evident in 2003. Lost-time Case Rate
  is defined as rate of all injury/illness cases
  with lost time per 100 employees. Data is based
  on Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
  employment numbers. NOTE The projected goals
  were derived from http//www.dol.gov/esa/owcp/dfec
  /share/Goals2007-09.xls VA for FY 2007 is
  above the National Government Lost-time claim
  rate of 1.61.

10
Executive Board, National Veterans Affairs Council
11
Executive Board, National Veterans Affairs Council

• Three Major Types of Injuries.
• Just as with the most frequent causes and sources
  of injuries, the Safety Strategic Plan commits us
  to identifying the types of the most frequent
  lost-time injuries, again with the objective of
  analyzing the program and the effectiveness of
  our efforts to prevent lost-time injuries.

11
12
Goals Presidential Safety Health and Return to
Employment Goal to have a reduction of total case
rates for injuries and illnesses by at least 3
per year. The 3 is based on FY 2003 Baseline
provided by Department of Labor. Total Case Rate
is defined as rate of all injury/illness cases
per 100 employees. Data is based on Office of
Personnel Management (OPM) employment numbers.
13
Top Injury TypesVA
Description Data obtained from Department of
Labor through the Workers Compensation-Occupation
al Safety Health Management Information System
(WC-OSH/MIS). Injuries by Fiscal Year Oct 1
Sept 30 Goals Presidential Safety Health and Re
turn to Employment Goal to have a reduction of
total case rates for injuries and illnesses by at
least 3 per year. The 3 is based on FY 2003
Baseline provided by Department of Labor, So no
goal is evident in 2003. If we are to reduce the
rate of injuries the prominent locations and
causes of the most frequent injuries need to be
addressed. Action/Milestone As contained in the
details of the Workers Compensation and Safety
Strategic Plans there will be increased
awareness, analysis, and management of these
programs to improve program administration and
outcome.
14
Executive Board, National Veterans Affairs Council

• Three Major Causes of Injuries.
• In the Safety Strategic Plan we have committed to
  identifying the causes of the three most frequent
  injuries, with the goal of analyzing program
  focus and effectiveness in preventing these
  injuries.

14
15
Top Injury Causes VA
16
Executive Board, National Veterans Affairs Council

• Investigations of every incident are critical to
  developing a means of identifying the causes and
  addressing corrective actions of the incident.
  
• Safety is of critical concern to our Department
  and is definitely a concern to everyone here.
  
• Employees should be encouraged to report
  incidents, and in fact have the responsibility to
  do so.
  
• Organizations are encouraged to establish
  procedures for reporting incidents, including
  near-misses.
  
• Bottom line, the more information we have about
  how and why an incident has occurred, the better
  we are able to address the cause and prevent
  further incidents.
• In addition, we will be better able to focus our
  efforts on the major causes, thus making a more
  safe work environment for all our employees.

16
17
Executive Board, National Veterans Affairs Council

• Currently, over 6,000 injured VA employees are
  away from work due to injuries and illnesses
  suffered while performing their assignments. The
  cost to VA was more than 166 million in 2007 and
  long-term obligations are estimated to exceed 2
  billion.
• At the same time, VA is experiencing shortages in
  occupations such as patient care nursing and
  disabled veterans claims processing.
  
• Returning partially disabled employees to duty
  where, medically feasible, would help our
  overburdened and understaffed work force, while
  meeting our responsibility of gainful employment
  to these individuals.
• In addition, we can maximize the availability
  and utilization of highly skilled, mission
  critical employees.

17
18
End