A risk assessment and analysis of loss to control the potential of injury at XYZ School District

Abstract

In many school districts across the United States and Canada, losses are occurring as a result of injury to employees. Many of these injuries are taking place due to the fact that risk control efforts are not made to improve work conditions, employee actions, or the overall safety of the school system. In the XYZ School District, many of the same accidents are occurring. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to examine XYZ School District's insurance loss records and to determine where risk control efforts should be concentrated. The objectives of the study consisted of four areas of analysis, which assisted in the development of solutions to the loss-producing circumstances. The goals of this investigation were to: 1) Assess previous losses incurred at XYZ School District to correlate their occurrence relative to tools and machines used, injury type, body part injured, and date of the loss. 2) Analyze accident/injury loss records of XY School District in order to quantify the monetary loss to the school district. 3) Prioritize the primary causes of loss in the XYZ school district based on occurrence as well as monetary loss. 4) Assess the current written policies, as well as employee practices, to determine what is being performed from a loss recordkeeping, as well as analysis, standpoint. Loss data, provided by the XYZ School District, was entered into a spreadsheet and analyzed to determine loss trends. Through this analysis, top injury types were established, as well as total costs for the years examined (1999 to 2002). Policies and procedures of the district were also qualitatively analyzed to determine the safety status of the organization. Through this examination, deficiencies were recognized with the school district's current practices. The review of literature included national and state trends, major causes of loss in the school system, risk assessment activities, and the basics of a school health and safety program. Through the analysis, it was possible to recommend solutions which may help minimize loss-producing situations in the district.