OSACH Safety Group Meeting
January 22, 2007 ~ 10:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Orientation Session
· Janet Avery welcomed all members to the first Safety Group meeting of 2007.
· Janet explained about the safety group program and explained the benefits to employers which can include; safety group organizations have been found to have fewer LTI and severity rates. As well it can lead to safer workplaces. In addition, as members of a Safety Group it means that the WSIB will defer your workwell for one year.
· In addition, some of the requirements to be members of a Safety Group include every October each organization must complete an application form, must participate for one year of program and organizations must be schduelschedule 1 firms with WSIB, belong to only 1 one safety group at a time and not be a member of SCIP.
· She also discussed that as members of the Safety Group you must attend at least 3 meetings, complete workplace assessment, action plan and year-end reports. Furthermore, five steps for five elements must be completed.
· Janet explained the 5 steps to the Safety Group elements which, include Step 1-Set Standard, Step 2-Communicate, Step 3-Train, Step 4-Evaluate or Evaluation plan and Step 5 – Acknowledged success and make improvements.
· Janet reminded all new Safety Group members that the workplace assessment report is due by February 1st, 2007 and must be submitted to Allison Simone no later than this date. She also suggested to writewriting N/A for items that do not apply to your organization.
· Florence Psarologos, WSIB Safety Group consultant, let everyone know that if there is an element that you wish to work on but it is not on the list, send the request to her through Janet fro for approval.
· See orientation presentation for more info.
1. Welcome and call to order
Janet Avery, OSACH
· Janet Avery announced that the next Safety Group meeting will be March 26, 2007 from 11:30 am – 3:30 pm at the Centre for Health and Safety Innovation, 5110 Creekbank Road, Mississauga.
· She also explained that the Return to Work (RTW) element must be chosen by 2006 & 2007 Safety Group members if they have not previous worked on this element.
· She also reminded everyone that anyone who has not received the MSD CD at this meeting would receive a copy in the mail.
· Janet reminded let everyone know about the opportunity of having a steering committee this year and encouraged any members wishing to help out to to please let her know.
· She also announced that Florence Psarologos will be our WSIB Safety Consultant for this year.
2. Meet and Greet Exercise
· Janet explained that your tables are a great way to share information so this year we have decided to try to put all similar organizations together at the tables. So a meet and greet exercise was carried out in order for organizations to meet similar organizations that you felt would be appropriate tothey would like to work with throughout the year. From the forms filled out at this meeting the table selections will be arranged and will be introduced at the next meeting.
3. Choosing of the Element
Hillarie Klass, OSACH Consultant
· Hillarie discussed that there are several elements that could be the common element this year and these include MSD, Workplace Inspections, JHSC and Aggression. Hillarie discussed that the biggest lost time Injury in our sector is MSD or Musculoskeletal disorders. A vote was conduced and the winner for this year’s common group element was MSD, followed by ViolenceAggression.
4. Break
5. Health and Safety in Emergency Management
Fiona Macpate, OSACH Consultant
· Fiona Macpate discussed that examples such as SARS, power blackout of 2003 are all reasons to prepare for emergencies.
· Fiona Macpate discussed that OSACH has introduced a resource document called Health and Safety in Emergency Management. For more information on this resource document, you can visit www.osach.ca or contact OSACH at 416-250-7444.
· In addition, OSACH also has a training sessions available called Be Pandemic Prepared which is now available in full or half day sessions format.
· Fiona said that there are two types of hazards which can be natural hazards such as flood or ,tornado or man made hazards which include building fires, explosions etc.
· These disasters can result in injuries, property damage as well as a negative impact on our environment such as air contamination or water contamination.
· Fiona Macpate suggested that a hazard identification and risk assessment should be completed and that this should be used to formulate your management plan. As well she suggests that you share the outcome with Joint Health and Safety Committee and your Health and Safety representative.
· She also discussed the risk management systems. The steps involved in this system are to identify all loss exposures, evaluate the risk in each exposure and develop a plan. Next you need to implement the plan and then monitor the plan.
· Fiona Macpate also reminded everyone that the number one thing that can go wrong in an emergency is communication so you need to make sure you clearly define the internal and external lines of communication.
· She also discussed that hazard control needs to happen at the source, along the path and at the worker.
· Fiona also talked about an emergency management plan and attached a sample copy of one, which is available on the Safety Group website.
· For more information you can check out the Be Pandemic Prepared on the OSACH website or the Health and Safety in Emergency Management powerpoint presentation available on the Safety Group Website.
Health and Safety Emergency Management Scenarios
· A breakout session occurred as different tables had different elements to work on.
Please Note: The full Scenarios are available on the Safety Group website.
Scenario # 1: A grease fire breaks out in the kitchen
Key Steps: Access Priority/ Clients/ Consumers
Cindy (Priority)
Leanne (2nd)
Mark (3rd)
Brian (4th)
5th is out on a day trip.
Remove clients according to priority using RACE
Remove Residents
Communicate to 911
Extinguish fire
Resources/Support:
- Training
- Transport
- Family notification
- Having equipment for evacuation / communication
- Evaluation kits
- Portable phones
Communicate:
- 911
- Staff in basement
- Family members
- Supervisors / Head Office
Scenario # 2: Personal Support Worker at Clients house in extreme weather
Key Steps:
- Contact Head Office
- Prepare client (assess risk)
- Plan to prep additional clients (prioritize)
- Emergency kit ready
- Call his own family
- Observe news/ media release
Resources/Support:
- Protection for client (written in contract with client)
- Liaising/ community organizations (Head Office)
- Find out essential services/ buddy system/ fan out
- Consider looking at care plan to integrate (Deployment of staff)
Scenario # 3: Dave receives a suspicious package from disgruntled co-worker who was terminated a few weeks ago.
Key Steps:
- Contain substance and immediate staff
- 911
- Biohazard Kit
- Communicate to senior management
- Someone to take charge/ notify JHSC
- Possible evaluation
Resources/Support:
- Limit access to area
- Limit info until more facts
Scenario # 4: Power goes out in City
Key Steps:
- Mary takes charge
- Determine adequate water
- Turn off appliances
- Monitor premises to further emergencies
- Inventory/ assess client needs
- Contact family needs
- Ensure no one is in danger
- Check Emergency Kit/ candles/ flash lights etc.
- Needs-medications/ lifts
- Get land line phone
Resources/Support:
- Equipment/ supplies (personal protection equipment/ relief)
- Contingency for staff to contact their own staff
Scenario # 5: Explosion
Key Steps:
- Call 911 / clarify info is correct
- Notify Head Office/ Supervisors – initiate Emergency Plan
- Reassure clients in home/ assess needs – report to Head Office
- Call in extra staff for manual lifting
- Notify fire department on behalf of special needs
- Communicate/ network to incoming workers
- Identify needs of home- process for families to contact staff
Resources/Support:
- Land line phones
- Generators
- Food on site
- Training for staff
- Psychosocial support available
Scenario # 6: Staff heard gun shots and saw the shooter who was a former terminated co-worker
Key Steps:
- Secure location
- Confirm all staff accounted
- Call 911
- Take charge person
- Pull file
Resources/Support:
- Contact visitors/ clients not to come in
- Buddy system
- Surveillance cameras, intercom
- Training
Communicate:
- Executive Director Message
-
6. Closing
Janet Avery, OSACH
· Janet reminded Safety Group members to fill out the terms of conditions contract which is located in the 2007 Safety Group Binders under the tab General Information. All signed sheets should be emailed or faxed to Allison at 416-250-7484 or email .
· The action plan reports are also due February 20th, 2007, the binders contained an error as the WSIB requires the reports be submitted by February 28th, so we need to receive the reports prior to then.
· The common element that was selected at this years meeting was MSD which should be selected under C. Hazard Recognition and Assessment under Other(On the Workplace Assessment form).As well for all 2007 members are required to pick the element Return to Work as one ofyourelementsand for 2006 members if you have not already chosen it as one of your elements then you should choose it as well.
· Lastly, Janet Avery reminded everyone if you want to withdraw from Safety Group that you can receive a full refund if you withdraw within 10 days from this meeting date.
The next meeting will take place on March 26th, 2006 from 11:30AM to 3:30PM at the Centre for the Centre for Health and Safety Innovation, 5110 Creekbank Road, Mississauga.
Page 1 of 6