The Occupational Health and Safety Agency for Healthcare in BC (OHSAH) was conceived in early 1998 in an Accord between management and union representatives. The Accord resulted in the creation of OHSAH, an agency with the goal of reducing workplace injuries and illness in healthcare workers and returning injured workers back to the job quickly and safely.
In the years directly following the establishment of OHSAH, the agency introduced the Partnership Initiatives program, which disbursed funds directly to the Health Authorities for the implementation and evaluation of a wide range of projects, including the Prevention and Early Active Return-to-Work Safely (PEARS) program. OHSAH also introduced joint committee education and training and worked on a variety of other projects, ranging from patient handling, ergonomics in hospital kitchens, laundries, and pharmacies, to protecting healthcare workers from infectious diseases, and preventing violent and aggressive behaviour.
OHSAH, together with its partners – Health Authorities, Unions, WorkSafeBC, and university researchers – has achieved remarkable success. The healthcare injury rate showed a steady decline from 1998 to 2005, and days lost showed a similar trend. Moreover, a healthy spirit of collaboration has developed among the partners to work together to achieve common goals.
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The Ceiling Lift Story
 The ceiling lift initiatives demonstrated that success requires: 1) senior management commitment as well as meaningful worker participation; 2) evidence on the effectiveness and cost-benefit of an intervention; 3) local stories and opinions from front-line workers, managers, and patients; as well as 4) the continuous involvement of decision-makers from government, WorkSafeBC, unions, and Health Authorities. In addition, the success of the ceiling lifts can be attributed not strictly to the biomechanical aspects of the lifts themselves, but to the important catalyst this initiative was for promoting a climate of safety, demonstrating concretely to the workforce that their well-being matters. These lessons have become the cornerstones of all OHSAH initiatives. |
OHSAH’s collaborative evidence-based approach to improving health and safety is best illustrated by its success with promoting the use of ceiling lifts across the province. In conjunction with many stakeholders, OHSAH undertook a series of initiatives that had a dramatic impact on BC healthcare knowledge, costs, policy, and practices related to manual lifting of patients. In 2001, OHSAH conducted an initial evaluation of the ceiling lift program at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Comox, and found there had been an 83% reduction in lost hours resulting from lift and transfer injuries following the introduction of a ceiling lift program. OHSAH also collected testimonials from front-line care providers, patients, and managers, all of whom were very positive about the lifts. With this evidence, OHSAH brought together healthcare leaders from across BC, leading to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a “no unsafe manual lift” policy, as well as a funding framework and program materials. In accordance with the MOU, OHSAH also produced a “report card” on the ceiling lift program, with recommendations for enhancing the effectiveness of ceiling lift programs in the province. OHSAH has since been actively involved in several other evaluations of ceiling lift interventions in acute, intermediate, and long-term care facilities, which have shown similar results as the original evaluation.
