One of the most easily confused criteria is “medical treatment beyond first aid.” How “first aid” is perceived can vary greatly

OSHA includes the following treatments and procedures in their definition of First Aid:

• Observation or counseling
• Diagnostic procedures, including X-ray, blood tests
• Over-the-counter med’s at over-the-counter strength
• Tetanus
• Cleaning, flushing, or soaking wounds
• Wound coverings, including suture substitutes such as butterfly bandages and Steri-strips
• Hot/cold treatment
• Non-rigid support such as ace, non-rigid back belts, etc.
• Temporary immobilization for transport purposes
• Drilling of nail to relieve sub-ungual hematoma
• Eye patches
• Foreign Body (FB) removal from eye using only irrigation or swab
• Simple skin FB removal
• Finger guards

If a work-related injury or illness is treated by any of these methods, then it does not meet OSHA’s criteria for being recorded in your company’s OSHA log. I

Please contact us at The Flanders Group if you have any questions or want help determining if any injuries or illnesses in your workplace qualify to be recorded in your OSHA log. Our insurance professionals help marinas, auto/RV dealerships, nurseries/landscapers, , manufacturers and refuse companies throughout New York state.

There is one category of incident that requires every type of employer to record and report to OSHA, regardless of their industry, business type, or number of employees. In cases of any accident that results in one or more fatalities or the hospitalization of three or more employees, every employer must advise the nearest OSHA office within eight hours of the occurrence of the accident. In most cases, the reporting will be followed by OSHA investigating such accidents to determine whether violations of standards contributed to the event.

Since this OSHA regulation applies to every operating business, it is important for all managers within your company to be aware of it. If you have any questions or wish to learn more about how to report such an accident to OSHA, please contact us at The Flanders Group for assistance.

Businesses throughout New York and across the U.S. have been targeted on line because hackers want to obtain sensitive information such as competitive data or financial information about their customers. What would that cost your organization? Could you survive an uninsured loss?

Cyber liability insurance is coverage that is designed to provide protection against data breaches, network security, intellectual property theft, privacy issues, errors and omissions, as well as other internet or technology related problems.

The cost of the insurance varies based on how secure your data is – physical security and network security. Make sure your wi-fi is secure and encrypt the password. Outline a plan for protecting sensitive information and what you will do if your security is breached. No one staff member should have access to all your systems. It’s safer to provide access as needed.

Traditional liability products do not address internet exposures and the risks involved have blossomed with the internet itself. Don’t let your business suffer damage to its reputation or an interruption in business due to a technology breach, instead, utilize the expertise of an insurance agent with experience in Cyber Liability coverage. Call The Flanders Group to learn more at 800-462-6435.

If your business has more than 10 employees, then you are required to comply with this federal OSHA rule, regardless of what rules exist for New York State. The Flanders Group clients in the marina, auto/RV dealership, nursery/landscape, manufacturing and refuse industries are required to comply, while some of our real estate industry clients may be partially or fully exempt.

We will provide several additional blog postings to explain what and how to record your company’s workplace injury and illness cases. In this blog, we address the OSHA posting rule.

Throughout the year, employers must log qualified workplace cases using OSHA Form 300. At the end of the year, employers summarize the log using OSHA’s Form 300A. On February 1st of each year, the employer is required to post the “Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses” (OSHA’s Form 300A) for the preceding year in a visible location. It is the summary only that is posted for the previous year, not the entire log, and it is to remain posted through April 30th.

If you have any questions or want advice about administering your OSHA compliance efforts, please contact us at The Flanders Group for assistance.

BLOG IS BASED ON THIS FLANDERS FAQ

What are the posting requirements? 

Answer:  On February 1^st  the employer is required to post the “Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses” (OSHA’s Form 300A) for the preceding year.  The summaries are to remain posted through April 30th.

The goal of your survey program should include:

- to improve communication between your organization and your employees so the program, as it exists, has been built with employees’ input and they can feel “ownership” of the program’s parameters;

- to establish a benchmark that allows you to make objective evaluations that result in changes over time to improve the program.

Providing a Recovery at Work program that maintains a high degree of employee satisfaction can result in returning employees to productive positions as much as 50% faster than might occur in the absence of a program. This can mean significant savings to the employer over time as you control your Workers’ Compensation insurance expense and your experience modification factor.

The Flanders Group provides its clients with worksheets and metrics to use with our Recovery at Work program. These will help you examine how well your program is performing and, along with employee survey results, create an atmosphere of continuous improvement. Furthermore, our experience working with other employers in your industry enables us to provide you with additional advice and ideas for improving your program.

Helping pro-active employers manage their Workers’ Compensation insurance program costs is a lead area of expertise for The Flanders Group. We will help you with complete services with a multi-disciplinary perspective.

 Insurance companies are monitoring this trend and have implemented stricter guidelines on general liability policies which include: coverage exclusions for snowplowing operations, adding the more expensive snowplow class code, and separating landscape labor from snowplow labor.

 As your insurance program manager, The Flanders Group suggests that you:

• Consider how increased insurance premiums will impact your future snowplow contracts.
• Be selective of the customers you agree to perform snowplowing services for. If claims result from snowplowing operations, your general liability premium will likely increase.
• Insure that contracts you sign only hold you responsible if the terms of the service contract were not performed properly. This will minimize your exposure to risk.

One of those tools is a letter you send to the physician that describes in detail the demands of the employee’s job and in return requests the doctor send back information concerning the employee’s physical capabilities. This facilitates transitional duties for successful a Recovery at Work program.

This tool, and the overall Recovery at Work program provided by The Flanders Group, forges a relationship with health providers and reinforces that you, the employer, are proactive in your desire to return employees to a productive position as soon as medically safe.

The Flanders Group provides our Workers’ Compensation insurance clients with our proprietary Recovery at Work Toolkit. One of the features of that toolkit is a written Recovery at Work agreement. The benefits of this tool include:

• Clear, concise expectations for injured workers, thus minimizing confusion and communication issues that can otherwise strain relationships with affected employees;
• An opportunity to review the employer’s definition of absences, tardiness, and no-call / no-show policies; and,
• Regular and periodic revisions and updates, which will ensure the ongoing success and improvement of a recovery-at-work initiative.

The Flanders Group will help you develop and implement this program in advance and, when it is necessary to use it, we will assist you as the employer with implementing the process outlined in the program. Better communication, in advance, with employees, is a critical element of our value in helping all Workers’ Compensation insurance clients at The Flanders Group to control and reduce their long-term costs.

The Flanders Group provides our Workers’ Compensation insurance clients with our proprietary Recovery at Work Toolkit. One of the features of that tool kit is the “Recovery at Work Job Offer Letter.” The benefits of this tool include:

• The possibility of reducing the cost of indemnity payments if the worker refuses the job offer;
• A favorable impact on the employer’s experience modification factor for up to three years as a result of reducing or terminating indemnity payments to the employee; and,
• Enhancing the employer’s position should litigation ensue.

The Flanders Group is an experienced and high-performing insurance broker and advisor for Workers’ Compensation insurance, in part because we provide the employer with expertise and support services that address your risk exposures beyond the basics of Workers’ Compensation insurance.