How Pelco Reduced Sprains and Sprains by 80% in Just Two Years
Learn how Pelco’s partnership with an onsite injury prevention specialist drives results in a short time period.
Pelco Case Study
In the past two years, the safety team at Pelco has achieved an 80% reduction in the most common and costly injuries at their facility: sprains and strains.
Industry
Security and Surveillance
Technology
Services Delivered
- ErgoPlus System
- Industrial Ergonomics
- Early Intervention
- Warm-up Stretching
- Education and Training
The Challenge
Pelco was struggling to lower sprains, strains, and other musculoskeletal injuries.
Upon contacting ErgoPlus for services, Pelco was experiencing high levels of recordable injuries and illnesses. Sprains, strains and other musculoskeletal injuries and disorders seemed to plague the facility.
Although there was an active safety team, there was not a formal process in place to reduce the risks associated with these injuries. There was no ergonomics team and no process to identify ergonomic improvement opportunities. Workplace athletes weren’t trained in proper body mechanics, ergonomics, or self-care best practices.
The healthcare process was just as reactive as the ergonomics process and workplace athlete training. There was no early reporting of fatigue in order to put preventive measures in place. Left unchecked, these MSD risk factors eventually led to a steady stream of frustrating, costly, and painful injuries.
In other words, there was no formal process in place to prevent the most common and costly injuries at the facility — musculoskeletal disorders.
Pelco partnered with onsite injury prevention specialist Jill Nelson
To meet these challenges, this Pelco facility partnered closely with ErgoPlus injury prevention specialist, Jill Nelson. Jill has spent over 10 years providing physical rehabilitation and implementing prevention programs both on the field and in the field for students, adults, and in industry.
The Solution
Pelco chose ErgoPlus to implement a total musculoskeletal health solution.
When Pelco shared their challenges with us, we responded with the perfect combination of our service offering to meet their health, safety and business goals. Injury prevention specialist Jill Nelson began making regular visits to the Pelco facility to implement and execute our injury prevention process, the ErgoPlus System.
Ergonomics — Reduce Workplace Risk Factors
Ergonomics is the science of designing the workplace, keeping in mind the capabilities and limitations of workers. Poor worksite design leads to fatigued, frustrated and hurting workers.
A systematic ergonomics improvement process improves worksite design, removing risk factors that lead to musculoskeletal injuries and allows for improved human performance and productivity.
Plus — Reduce Individual Risk Factors
Our onsite injury prevention specialists are Certified Athletic Trainers, and they bring the best principles of sports medicine into the workplace. This approach is driven by engaging employees one-on-one to identify and resolve the root cause of fatigue and discomfort.
This model of proactive, preventive healthcare will create far more value for your organization than reactively waiting to treat the injuries that will inevitably occur in the traditional, reactive model.
The ErgoPlus System empowered Pelco to lower all causative risk factors that lead to musculoskeletal injuries, not leaving anything to chance.
The Results
A focus on prevention shifts musculoskeletal health from a cost center to a profit center within just two years.
The story of Pelco, Layne Soares (Pelco Safety Manager) and Jill Nelson (ErgoPlus onsite injury prevention specialist) illustrates a truism we see borne out over and over again — a focus on prevention today improves outcomes tomorrow and on down the road. A prevention-focused mindset, along with a belief that injuries aren’t a necessary cost of doing business, is a catalyst for a successful partnership that is driving health and safety excellence.
The truest measure of our performance is the success of our clients. This is what happens when the right expertise combines with the right process to create world-class results. Here are the results of our partnership with Pelco so far.
“Jill has done an absolutely amazing job. To give some perspective, I’ve been here 7 ½ years and last year was the first time I’ve witnessed the top “type of injury” experienced NOT be sprain/strain related. In fact, our results for 2012 were historic in that we incurred the lowest number of recordable injuries in Pelco’s 25 year history. Thanks to Jill’s input and training, our sprain/strain-related injuries were reduced by 50+%, contributing to an overall reduction in injuries vs. 2011 by 50+%. Jill has been, and continues to be, a viable asset to our team.”
Layne Soares, Safety Manager