Safety performance intervention effectiveness

By the long term effect we mean the safety performance over a long period of time coupled with prosperity on the basis of measures such as production, service, productivity and quality. Related to safety we would like to asess accidents and successful interventions together with a survey of risk perceptions in the organizations. If there is a problem to measure successful intervention, the level of accidents is the flip side and could be explored. 

Quantitative safety performance measurements can be either outcome oriented or process oriented (Daugherty 1999, 147). Outcome-oriented performance measures are after-the-fact measures. The performance activity has occurred then the results have been measured. Examples of outcome measures used in safety include the reduction in the number of accidents, lost workdays, etc. Outcome measures can provide an indication as to the impact safety program interventions have upon safety performance. These performance measures provide an historical account of the effectiveness of past performance. 

Despite these successful implementations, BBS approach faces a critical difficulty in achieving persistent effects. Some studies have reported that behavioural safety performance declined (Johnston et al., 1994 Lingard Rowlinson, 1998) or even went back to the baseline level (Komaki et al., 1978) after intervention was stopped. 

Behavior-based methods are especially cost effective for large-scale applications. Much community-based and organizational research has shown substantial improvements in environmental, transportation, production, and health-related problems as a direct result of this approach to intervention (e.g., see comprehensive research reviews by Elder et al., 1994 Geller et al., 1982 Goldstein and Krasner, 1987 Greene et al., 1987). And there is plenty of evidence that the behavior-based approach can dramatically improve an organization s safety performance (e.g., DePasquale and Geller, 1999 McSween, 1995 Petersen, 1989 Ward, 2000). 

Assessing intervention effectiveness is most difficult but most critical. Our lengthy panel discussions on this issue revealed the different levels of performance discussed previously—individual, group, and system. We also debated process vs. outcome issues and the most objective and efficient ways to measure safety processes and outcomes. We concluded that behavior was the optimal process measure and injmy reduction the ultimate measure of intervention success. 

The precursor was identified in the maintenance sub-process. In practice, the operators from technical support observed the presence of substances inside the packaging machines. Subsequently, they consulted the chief operator on how to remove the substances from the machines and perform the most suitable intervention. These actions correspond with the control elements on the operational control level. The actions were performed in order to resume production quickly, and adhere to planned schedules. Additionally, experience and training provided the operators with guidelines on how to perform the maintenance effectively. In practice the production manager, responsible for any preventive solutions was not aware of the existence of this precursor and consequently had no overview of these deviations even though the company s quality and safety standards required an overview of all deviations and... 

Helping clients get a good grasp of the CBT model of social phobia and how it applies to them provides a rationale for all of the interventions that follow. While this can be done verbally, it is usually more powerful if there is an experiential element to it as well (Bennett-Levy et al. 2004), which often comes from behavioural experiments. In Theresa s case, it was important to illustrate the effects of focusing her attention internally, and the role of safety behaviours on her self-consciousness and on how she performed socially. The overall aim of socialising her to the model was to help her to understand the psychological processes that maintained her social phobia. 

When objective measurement of performance capacities has been incorporated into many clinical trials, concepts and tools from human performance engineering can facilitate the selection of variables and shed some Hght on issues noted above. In either safety- or efficacy-oriented studies, study variable selection can be characterized as a two-step process (1) identification of the factors in question (Table 82.1) and (2) selection of the relevant performance capacities to be measured and associated measurement instruments. This Hnk between these two steps often represents a challenge to researchers for a number of reasons. First, duality in terminology must be overcome. Concerns about an intervention are typically initially identified with negative terms such as dizziness and not in terms of performance capacities such as postural stability. Human performance models based on systems engineering concepts [Kondraske, 1995] can be used to facilitate the translation of both formal and lay terms used to identify adverse effects to relevant performance capacities to be measured, as shown in Table 82.1. 

Watching teams and teamwork quickly reveals that a group of weU intentioned individuals does not make a team and furthermore, that teamwork has to be planned and organized. In this section we will review some apparently simple interventions, which turn out to have quite profound effects. Daily goals, preoperative and post-operative checklists seem mundane, and this partly accounts for clinicians resistance to their use. However, a checklist is not a piece of paper or even a list it is a team intervention which, used well, can affect the wider team functioning, the relationships across professions and hierarchies and even the values and safety culture of the team. To my mind, the impact of these simple tools on clinical processes and patient outcome suggests that their effect can only be fully understood by appreciating their wider impact on team performance. 

Many companies conduct accident investigations and keep accident records and other data on the company s safety and health initiatives. If a company has a sufficient number of accidents/incidents and enongh detail in their occupational injury/illness investigation data, the company can begin to examine trends or emerging issues relevant to their safety and health intervention/prevention efforts. The analysis of this data can be nsed to evaluate the effectiveness of safety and health at various workplaces, jobsites, or for groups of workers. The safety and health data can be used by a company to compare to that of other companies that perform similar work, employ a comparable workforce, or compete in the same kind and size of market on a state, regional, national, or international basis. 

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