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City Employee Safety - Days Away Restricted or Transferred (DART) Rate YTD

Desired Result:  Below Target

 
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Analysis of Performance
Note: This historical data of this metric changes in subsequent time periods because injury data is tied to the date of injury regardless of when treatment occurs or the case changes from recordable to time away restricted, or transferred. For example, if an employee has an injury in March but he does not seek medical treatment until June, it will be captured on March's OSHA log and it will not show up on the June log. National benchmark data for any year is only available in September of the following year. There is an approximate 18 month lag time in current available national benchmark data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many of our injuries which result in employees being temporarily unable to perform their regular job functions involve shoulders, backs, and knees.  Each department has unique exposures and work tasks that increase the likelyhood for these types of injuries. Our safety specialists in each department ananlyze the root cause of injuries to focus on prevention. 



Minimizing the severity of injury and improving return-to-work outcomes requires a multi-faceted approach that prioritizes prevention, early intervention, and effective rehabilitation strategies. We continue to foster open communication between management, workers, and healthcare providers to enhance the likelihood of a safe and effective return to work. Early intervention, strong safety protocols, and a holistic approach to recovery and rehabilitation are key to minimizing lost time, improving employee well-being, and reducing workers' compensation costs.

One current project targeting this issue is Light and Power LEAN.  This project geared towards supporting the Electric Lineworkers (job family) who do very heavy physically demanding work for the extremely important job of keeping the City’s power on.  These employees consistently work with high force (heavy weight/effort) in all weather, on varied terrain, in combination with high-risk electrical situations.  Approximately eighty-five percent of twenty-six employees reported pain, numbness, or discomfort when surveyed.   

Light and Power LEAN is a multifaceted project using a tiered approach to help maintain the health of the employees with the following supports: 

-Ergonomic programming and preventative maintenance, specific to the lineworker position for those employees that do not have acute or ongoing injury   

-A small pilot program of several employees who can benefit from formal physical therapy to restore before moving on to the maintenance portion.   

-Collaboration between Light and Power, Broadband, Purchasing, and Safety and Risk Management regarding the process for ordering new materials to ensure the materials are not only safe electrically and for the public, but also safe for the employees interacting with them.   

Metric Definition
The Days Away Restricted or Transferred (DART) rate calculation is based upon the number of work related injuries and illnesses severe enough to cause an employee to be temporarily reassigned or miss work completely in relation to the total number of employee hours worked. This is a nationally recognized standard safety metric. Current-year benchmarks are not available as they are published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and have an approximate 18 month lag time.
Why Is This Important?
DART rate is important because it is a nationally benchmarkeable measure widely accepted as representative of injury severity in the workplace.  It is important for the City to provide a safe workplace for all employees and the only way to achieve that is by driving a culture of proactive safety built on continuous improvement.  As safety efforts drive down injuries and injury severity, the costs associated with workers' compensation claims can be driven down as well.  The reduction of days away, restricted or transferred is directly related to reduction in lost productivity as well as lost efficiency because only workgroups that are whole can operate at optimal performance.
City Organization Impact on Performance
High – Reducing the DART rate requires the City to reduce the number of injuries that result in days away, restricted or transferred. Getting employees back to work quickly and efficiently following injuries enables to the City to spend less money on benefits used to keep employees who are off or on modified duty whole. Many studies have led to the well accepted fact that employees who return to work quickly following an injury rehab faster, better, and more completely than those who do not.  Driving down injuries that impact the DART rate requires workgroups to be engaged and to actively interact with injured workers to get them back to work as efficiently as medically possible.  This engagement in conjuction with other ongoing proactive safety efforts has concrete and continuous impact on improving the City's safety culture.
Benchmark Information
This metric contains General Industry and Public Entities benchmark data. The General Industry benchmark gives overall context to the City's performance, while the Public Entities benchmark allows for a closer comparison that accounts for the unique challenges that face local governments.