Immediately notify your supervisor, no matter how minor, the incident. Employees must report all accidents, injuries, and exposures. All blood/body fluid exposures must be seen immediately to ensure source testing and prophylactic medication if indicated. Managers will complete an accident form with the employee, reviewing potential causes and identifying prevention measures.
Contact Employee/Occupational Health at 632-0710 to arrange an evaluation (use the Emergency Department at 754-2400 for off shift and weekends.) This will ensure the employee receives appropriate medical attention and referral to a specialist if required.
Statistics show that the majority (60 percent) of falls are results of a slip or trip. The remaining 40 percent are falls from a height. It is important for employees to understand how to prevent accidents and injuries, but understanding how these injuries occur. Hazard surveillance is key to eliminating potential injuries to employees as well as patients and visitors. By surveying our work environment daily for items such as loose carpeting, slippery floors and loose railings we can help to eliminate the causes of these injuries.
Slips: Slips happen where there is too little friction or traction between the footwear and the walking surface. Common causes of slips are: wet or oily surfaces, occasional spills, weather hazards, loose, unanchored rugs or mats, and flooring or other walking surfaces that do not have same degree of traction in all areas.
Trips: Trips happen when your foot collides (strikes, hits) an object causing you to lose the balance and, eventually fall. Common causes of tripping are: obstructed view, poor lighting, clutter in your way, wrinkled carpeting, uncovered cables, bottom drawers not being closed, and uneven (steps, thresholds) walking surfaces.
Both slips and trips result from some a kind of unintended or unexpected change in the contact between the feet and the ground or walking surface. This shows that good housekeeping, quality of walking surfaces (flooring), selection of proper footwear, and appropriate pace of walking are critical for preventing fall accidents.
Housekeeping
Good housekeeping is the first and the most fundamental level of preventing falls due to slips and trips. Without good housekeeping practices, any other preventive measures such as installation of sophisticated flooring, specialty footwear or training on techniques of walking and safe falling will never be fully effective. Some practices include:
Flooring
Changing or modifying walking surfaces is the next level of preventing slip and trips. Recoating or replacing floors, installing mats, pressure-sensitive abrasive strips or abrasive-filled paint-on coating and metal or synthetic decking can further improve safety and reduce risk of falling. However, it is critical to remember that high-tech flooring requires good housekeeping as much as any other flooring. In addition, resilient, non-slippery flooring prevents or reduces foot fatigue and contributes to slip prevention measures.
Footwear
In workplaces where floors may be oily or wet or where workers spend considerable time outdoors, prevention of fall accidents should focus on selecting proper footwear. Since there is no footwear with anti-slip properties for every condition, consultation with manufacturers' is highly recommended. Properly fitting footwear increases comfort and prevents fatigue, which in turn, improves safety for the employee.