Employee Safety & Health

Environmental Health
EMC uses the latest technology to evaluate the environmental conditions that may result in costly losses. Our industrial hygienists perform on-site environmental health surveys to identify risks such as excessive noise levels, chemical exposures and air contaminants. Based on the results, we provide specific recommendations to control each identified hazard. These practical solutions may include some modifications in current operating procedures, adjustments in engineering controls and/or changes in personal protective equipment.

Ergonomics

Ergonomics is an applied science designed to improve the overall safety, quality and productivity of the workplace. When you factor in the rising expense of cumulative trauma injuries, ergonomics can significantly improve your bottom line.

EMC’s highly experienced loss control team uses the latest tools and software to assist you in initiating and monitoring an on-going ergonomics program. This may include selecting appropriate material handling equipment, modifying work stations and/or simply developing job descriptions that detail physical demands.

ErgoMaster
ErgoMaster is a computer program used to analyze forces on the human body. Several different modules are used to determine if a person has exceeded The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) maximum allowable forces on the back.

Lift analyst — Utilizes photos or video of material handling activities (lifting, bending, carrying, etc.) to calculate forces on the lower back. Based on the results of the analysis, changes can be made to the workstation or material handling activity to reduce the amount of stress on the lower back and lower the risk of injury.
Task analyst — Includes various checklists and formulas to evaluate task design and perform job analysis for a variety of material handling and production tasks.
Workstation analyst — Provides tools for the evaluation of industrial and/or office environments for ergonomic risk factors, including the office furniture and equipment.
Posture analyst — Includes tools to evaluate an individual’s posture as it pertains to range-of-motion, biomechanics and anthropometrics. This tool is often used in conjunction with the workstation analyst and is valuable for designing ergonomic workstations in service, industrial and office environments.

Facility Planning and Material Handling Analysis
Work-related injuries can significantly increase workers’ compensation costs. EMC’s engineers can help you reduce these costs resulting from material handling injuries through proven industrial engineering techniques. Reducing the frequency and severity of injuries, however, is only one benefit of addressing your material handling methods. Experience shows that improved layouts usually result in greater productivity and an overall reduction in costs.

Partnership Service
A unique and extremely effective process, EMC's partnership service concentrates on developing cost-effective safety solutions for your organization. A special task force — made up entirely of your own employees — works with an EMC consultant to identify the work-related activities that may potentially result in an injury or loss. Your employees are then challenged to develop ideas to reduce or eliminate exposure to these activities. Including your own employees in the process typically results in effective changes, which receive less resistance during implementation.

The partnership service is designed to:

Identify and prioritize potential problems
Develop solutions
Propose changes in operations to eliminate potential hazards
Be adaptable so policyholders can use it for any future loss control/prevention needs
Utilize fault tree diagrams to analyze operations and exposures
Focus on developing cost effective, practical solutions
Be successful in many types of industries

There are generally eight steps to the partnership service process:

Form an upper management steering committee to review bottom line implications
Familiarize ourselves with your operations and identify catastrophic exposures
Analyze historical losses
Present findings to steering committee
Steering committee designates an area of focus and appoints a task force consisting of three to five employees from the designated area
Conduct several meetings with task force to develop an operations diagram, complete hazard training, identify and prioritize risk factors, brainstorm for solutions and develop change proposal
Present change proposal to the steering committee
Steering committee makes decision and manages the changes

Compliance Benchmarking Surveys
An important element of any loss control program is making sure your operations are compliant with OSHA, NEC, ADA, NFPA and other nationally-recognized safety guidelines. EMC’s loss prevention professionals conduct an on-site survey to determine if you are compliant with these standards. Following the survey, a detailed report of all conditions observed to be below the minimum requirements, along with suggestions of cost-effective solutions for resolving them are provided to you.

Select Provider Program
Good reporting, prompt, quality medical attention and excellent communication are at the heart of effective workers’ compensation claim handling. EMC’s Select Provider Program assists employers in managing their workers’ compensation claims by providing them with the procedures and materials to quickly and accurately handle any work-related injury or illness.

The key to controlling workers’ compensation costs is knowing what to do when an injury is first reported. The Select Provider Program’s structure assists an employer in organizing the first 24 to 48 hours of a workers’ compensation claim:

Providing initial employee reporting procedures for a work-related injury or illness
Collecting accurate information on the injury or illness
Providing employees with organized medical care quickly
Getting employers to report the initial injury to their EMC claims adjusters in a timely and well-documented manner

It is important to designate medical facilities based on quality and convenience to you and your employees. EMC has contracted to allow employees access to preferred providers networks throughout the country that assist employees in receiving quality care and communication. The Select Provider Program forms and materials are customized for each insured to assist in the initial referral and reporting process.

It is reassuring for everyone involved when both the workers and employers know what to do when an incident occurs. The program procedures are used by the insured’s management staff to assist the worker through the process of initial referral to medical care. Employees are educated before an incident occurs and provided with specific instructions for what to do when a report needs to be made.

The Select Provider Program is a value-added service provided by EMC at no additional cost to our policyholders. For more information or assistance in establishing your program contact our Workers’ Compensation Program Coordinator at 515-345-2175.

Rehab the Lab (Iowa schools)
Rehab the Lab is a comprehensive chemical management program that helps Iowa schools with proper and safe identification and control of hazardous chemicals. Rehab the Lab can assist with management, education and disposal options for these chemicals reducing the liability and danger to students, staff and communities.

As a cooperative effort between EMC and the Metro Waste Authority, Rehab the Lab has touched the lives of Iowans in two-thirds of the counties in the state through the training of school district staff and the safe removal of more than 60 tons of dangerous chemicals. The program received two Governor’s Iowa Environmental Excellence Awards: the “Overall Environmental Excellence Award” and a “Special Recognition in Waste Management Award,” in 2005.

To learn more about what Rehab the Lab can do for your school, click here.

Loss Analysis Reports
A comprehensive analysis of past losses can provide you with a realistic overview of recurring problems and trends in claims. Using this information and a database of more than a half million claims, EMC’s loss control team can provide detailed loss reports for your operation. In addition, we can develop comparative loss analyses for a wide variety of industries.