Safety interventions developing

Those famiMar with the concepts of risk understand that attaining zero risk is impossible and that a predictive measurement system that can identify every possible risk on an anticipatory basis has not yet been developed. Furthermore, I believe we have to admit that we are not good yet at having developed measurement systems to determine whether cause-and-effect relationships exist for the safety interventions we propose. 

Kim Lyngby Mikkelsen is a medical doctor with a PhD in public health epidemiology. He worked for 10 years as a senior researcher in occupational health safety research, focusing on safety culture and climate, on the development of a Nordic safety climate questionnaire and on safety intervention research. Since 2009 his work has been centred on patient safety, including learning from adverse events. 

Note that an extensive sensitivity analysis may be developed to optimize a mix of safety interventions to a maximum safety yield. We believe that this will remain a task for safety experts and not for users in the field. In the future, an extensive sensitivity analysis functionality may be added to Platypus but at this time that is not included in the software. 

Figures 25.1 and 25.2 show the solid effectiveness of the driving safety index. Figure 25.1 shows the increased average team levels of safe driving performance while Figure 25.2 shows the decrease in vehicle accidents, medical aids, and lost-workday incidents after the behavioral safety intervention. An index was also developed to monitor supervisor behavior. The supervisor index listed items related to their role in the safety process, examples being held safety meeting, provided feedback to employees on safety behaviors, posted data on graph, and the like. Supervisors completed the index each time a driver was radioed to conduct a selfobservation.

Initially, safety implementation with the linemen was simply to be a pilot study, but as a result of word-of-mouth, maintenance personnel chose to implement the behavioral safety process in their area as well. These employees were responsible for repair of the trucks used by the linemen. When word got around that the linemen were having so much fun and receiving treats and plaudits, they too wanted to participate. Figure 25.6 illustrates the substantial decrease in disabling injury severity that occurred throughout the entire organization as a result of a behavioral safety intervention in all areas. Due to the transportability and ease of use of the intervention developed for the linemen, the maintenance department was able to implement its own safety process quickly and effectively. 

Thinking skills. Successful leaders can integrate large amounts of information, interpret it objectively and coherently, and act decisively as a result (Baron, 1995 Kirkpatrick and Locke, 1991). Constructive thinking skills evolve among team members when objective data are collected on the progress of safety interventions and used to refine or expand these processes and develop new ones. 

Where a specific incident leading to safety, quality or production problems has occurred, the plant management may wish to perform a very focused intervention. This will be directed at identifying the direct and underlying causes of the problem, and developing an appropriate remedial strategy. The process for performing an analysis of this type is described in the incident analysis section of Chapter 6. 

ED and vascular disease commonly coexist. They share the same risk factors and endothelial dysfunction is the common denominator. ED may develop in an otherwise asymptomatic male and be an important predictor of subsequent acute or chronic cardiac events. ED may therefore offer an opportunity for risk assessment and therapeutic intervention to reduce the chance of a subsequent cardiac presentation. Cardiac patients with ED need a careful assessment to judge the safety of sexual activity and suitability for ED treatment. Properly assessed and counselled patients can safely enjoy sexual activity. ED therapy with phosphodiesterase type five inhibitors is safe and effective providing the patient and partner are advised on their use and the importance of avoiding drug interactions, especially with nitrates. 

While passion in any worthwhile pursuit is to be commended, passion about a process that affects the lives of many millions of people throughout the world is particularly so. Pharmaceutical products improve health and quality of life on a scale that is unrivaled by any other medical intervention. Before these drugs are prescribed by physicians, they go through an extremely rigorous process that investigates their safety and their efficacy This is the process of new drug development. 

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