BE CARE AWARE: 2015 Long Term Injury Rates

Dear SafeCare BC members,

To formally launch this year’s Be Care Aware campaign, I am pleased to provide an update on injury rates in our long term care sector.

SafeCare BC was established in 2013 by the long-term care employers and WorkSafe BC as a strategic collaboration with unions and other key stakeholders to reduce injury rates in the sector by providing ongoing training opportunities for workers, promoting best practices and initiating education and awareness initiatives.

WorkSafe BC has just released their annual profile of British Columbia’s long-term care sector – which they continue to identify as high-risk. Among other things, the report captures the size of the sector by payroll, 2015 injury rates and total claims costs. According to the profile, employment in the long-term care sector has grown by approximately 15% over the past four years – to a total payroll of $1.5 billion in 2015 from $1.3 billion in 2012. SafeCare BC members represent 63% of the sector’s payroll.

Since then, I am pleased to report the sector’s overall injury rate has declined by 8% – from 9.7 time-loss claims per 100 workers in 2012 to 8.9 in 2015. For SafeCare BC members, the overall injury rate has dropped 11% – from 9.52 in 2012 to 8.52 in 2015. WorkSafe BC sector premiums have also dropped for employers by 11% over three years – from $2.66 in 2015 to a 2017 projected rate of $2.36.
Despite this growth:

total work days lost to injuries for the whole sector has declined by 8% – from 120,145 in 2012 to 110,090 in 2015
claims cost have gone down by 10% since 2012 – from $24.45 million to $21.97 million in 2015
total number of time loss claims has remained the same – from 2,935 in 2012 to 2,927 in 2015

For SafeCare BC members:

the total payroll has increased by 12% – from $844 million in 2012 to $948 million in 2015
total workdays lost to injuries has declined by 16% – from 81,522 in 2012 to 69,177 in 2015
claims costs have gone down by 12% – from $16.7 million in 2012 to $14.7 million in 2015
total number of time loss claims has gone down by 5% – from 1896 in 2012 to 1802 in 2015

For a summary of other facts about long term care injury rates, click here.

(Click here for a summary of 2015 long term care injury rates)
Last week, WorkSafeBC and SafeCare participated in a teleconference with SafeCare members to provide more information about the 2015 rates click here for a copy of the WorkSafe presentation.

While these new statistics represents some positive developments, injury rates remain too high (four times the provincial average) and much more work needs to be done, particularly related to return-to-work rates and preventing acts of violence – which now account for 15.3% of all accident types.

In collaboration with our key partners, SafeCare BC will continue to develop and deliver a full suite of training, education and awareness programs that respond to the real needs of care aides, managers, nurses and other staff. This work will continue to reflect feedback received from employers and front line staff in our most recent Member Survey and be expanded in 2017 to include the growing home support sector.

Thank you again for your leadership and active participation in SafeCare BC training events and workshops over the past year. As always, please do not hesitate to contact me at david@safecarebc.ca if you have any questions about the 2015 report.

Yours truly,

David Hurford,
Executive Director
SafeCare BC