Take a look around and read through our posts for the latest on insurance, workers' compensation, and Safety and Loss Control.
A quarterly publication of the Risk Management Division
3/28/2016 3:30:55 PM
What you need to know now
Up-coming events:
Observance:
By: Gary Westman, Program Manager
Workers' Compensation
The title of this article means everything in a workers’ compensation claim. It might sound simple, but, in practice, it can be complicated. Despite the complications with precisely defining this concept, it is still very important that you have a general understanding because it plays a significant factor in determining whether a workers’ compensation claim is accepted.
For a work-related injury to be covered under Minnesota workers’ compensation laws, the work-injury must arise out of and in the course and scope of employment. The simple act of just being at work and claiming an injury occurred while at work does not automatically mean that a person is covered for their injury under Minnesota workers’ compensation laws. To help clarify this point, we will briefly explain what this means and provide you with an example of an injury scenario.
First, there must be a causal relationship between the employment and the injury. This is usually triggered by an increased risk that exposes the employee to a greater hazard than that of the general public. Second, the employee must be engaged in providing a service related to their employment at the time of the injury.
An example of a scenario that meets only one of the above requirements is an employee at work walking on a level surface, at a normal pace, not carrying anything, and the employee’s knee buckles causing the employee to sustain an injury. While the employee was likely in the course and scope of their employment, the injury most likely did not arise out of their employment because there is no increased risk that exposed the employee to a greater hazard than the general public.
If we take the above example and add a couple of more facts to it, we can quickly change the outcome to a covered workers’ compensation claim. If the employee was carrying a box of supplies or if the floor surface had a hazard such as it was slippery or the carpet was torn, we likely would have a compensable workers’ compensation claim because now the second part of the requirement has been met: there is an increased risk that exposed the employee to a greater hazard than the general public.
What can you do now that you know more about the concept of arising out of and in the course and scope of employment? Your help in quickly gathering facts after a work-related injury plays a critical part in any claim investigation. Collecting details of exactly what the employee was doing immediately before and up to the time of the injury is critical. Taking pictures of the area where the injury happened is recommended, and if there is a video camera in the area where the injury occurred, we recommend that you secure a copy of the tape. If you are unsure of what information is important to collect after an injury is reported, please contact your agency workers’ compensation coordinator or Gary Westman with the RMD Workers’ Compensation Program at (651) 201-3030.
By: Sandra Bauer, State Safety Coordinator
Risk Management Division
It seems like everything is tracked in apps now days. Bracelets can track how many steps you take, beds can tell you how long you have slept, and GPS units can tell you how far you have biked. The amount of data one person can collect in a day is absolutely astronomical! It’s important to note though, that more data doesn’t always mean better data.
Sometimes, good old fashioned cause and effect detective work is all you need to analyze the data you already have.
A Place to Start
Step 1: Your MnSAFE goals should align with helping to reduce instances where injuries are likely to occur. Ensure your agency has identified the hazardous conditions that are leading to your injuries. This is also a good time to recognize that any goal that isn’t geared towards injury reduction may need to take a back seat for now.
Ideas for Identifying Hazardous Conditions
It may seem that focus groups are outdated in our high-tech society, but focus groups can go beyond data and give insight on how to solve your agencies toughest problems.
Step 2: Create a map to reach your goals. What objectives have you set in order to attain your goals? Even the best intentioned goals will remain unmet without a map to get there. If you have consistently been in the red, it may be that the objectives you set to reach your goals need some tweaking. Figuring out what is working is not an exact science, but creating objectives that can be measured or demonstrated will help get your goals moving in the right direction.
OSHA AWAIR Pamphlet (See page 3 for exampled of goals and objectives)
Step 3: Relax! Making systematic changes takes time and results will not be seen overnight. Always remember that you are not alone in reaching your MnSAFE goals. If you run into a snag in creating or reaching your goals, feel free to give me a call.>/p>
This is Sandra Bauer reporting on and for the MnSAFE Way -- "Where Safety Meets Employees in Both Work and Play".
Sandra A. Bauer
State Safety Coordinator
P:(651) 201-3011
E: Sandra.Bauer@state.mn.us
Yammer: "Team Safety" @ yammer.com/state.mn.us/#/home
By: Todd A. Christenson, Program Manager
Property and Casualty & Loss Control
Administration’s Fleet and Surplus Services (FSS) has started a long anticipated fleet telematics pilot project. One of FSS’s long standing goals is to provide safe, cost effective transportation solutions for government. Studies suggest telematics can assist FSS in doing just that. Typically fleets see cost reductions and FSS hopes to see similar results by evaluating how its fleet is operating.
What is Fleet Telematics?
Fleet Telematics is the exchange of information from vehicles to a central monitoring system and data base. A telematic device is installed in each vehicle and transmits data acquired from the vehicle through the device about every 3 minutes.
What types of data will this telematics system monitor?
How is Telematics being implemented across the state fleet?
An initial three month pilot project is underway.
What happens after the pilot?
FSS expects to implement Telematics on all agency vehicles leased from FSS following a review of the pilot project. Other agencies that own vehicles are participating on the Telematics Analytics Group and will make their own determination on how or if fleet Telematics will be used based on their business needs.
For more information on Fleet Telematics contact Holly Gustner, or by phone at 651-201-2514.
Learn your role in eliminating workplace injuries at mn.gov/admin/mnsafe
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