Cincinnati Children's Honored for Workplace Safety
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is one of only 24 Ohio hospitals to be honored by the Ohio Hospital Association (OHA) for "superior hospital safety programs and superior employee safety records."
Cincinnati Children's had the lowest employee injury rate in its category (hospitals with more than 4,000 employees) and, of all hospitals in Ohio state, Cincinnati Children's was in the top 20 percent in terms of employee safety.
"This is a very tough honor to earn," says David Hendershot, director, field services, with the OHA. "Cincinnati Children's safety committee is obviously very conscientious and has done a thorough job of creating a safe environment in which to work."
Each year, the OHA's Statewide Hospital Safety Campaign honors hospitals with excellent employee or workplace safety records. To participate in the campaign, hospitals submitted information on workplace safety based on federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations. This year, 119 hospitals throughout the state participated.
"I believe this award is a clear and tangible indication of the hospital's commitment to providing an extraordinarily safe working environment for our employees," says Ronald McKinley, PhD, vice president, Human Resources, at Cincinnati Children's. It certainly signifies that Cincinnati Children's is one of the very safest places to work in America."
The number of on-the-job injuries with days away from work ranged from zero to 115, and the number of days away from work due to job-related injuries ranged from zero to 2,456.
The injury rate for each facility was calculated by dividing the number of injury cases with days away from work per 200,000 hours (which is the number of hours worked in a year by 100 full-time employees) by the total number of hours worked at the facility during the year.
The calculated injury rates ranged from zero to 5.79, with a 1.63 average for participating hospitals. Cincinnati Children's injury rate was .52, an improvement over its injury rates of .57 in 2003, .60 and 2002 and .86 in 2001.
Cincinnati Children's safety committee is chaired by Mel Rutherford, vice president, Risk Management and Corporate Compliance. Richard Stephenson is director of safety.
Contact Information
Jim Feuer, 513-636-4656,
jim.feuer@cchmc.org
