Safety program a big Springdale success in 2007
Tuesday December 18, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
Looking back over the past year at Springdale Country Manor, administrator and director of care Maureen Imamovic says one of the things she’s most proud of is the Peterborough long-term care home’s perfect score on its safety audit in June.

For the past two years, OMNI Health Care has been involved with a five-year program to help foster best practices in workplace safety. Safety Group is an initiative of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). It aims to improve workplace safety and reduce WSIB premiums.

This is Springdale’s first year in the program.

The initiative requires a lot of paper work, as well as training sessions during all three shifts, Imamovic explains.

The idea behind the program is to create a set of standardized documentation which explains to each staff member what steps to take to ensure safety in particular areas.

In order to get everyone at Springdale familiar with the safety standards took “a lot of hard work,” says Imamovic, however, the effort has been worthwhile.

Since signing on with Safety Group, the rate of workplace accidents has declined at Springdale and the home’s WSIB costs are lower, says Imamovic.

Any workplace participating in the program is subject to an audit, which is done through a lottery. Springdale was selected to be audited in June, and when the results came back the home received a score of 100 per cent.

“The work has paid off,” says Imamovic. “It’s working. We’re working safer.”

Members of Safety Group meet four times per year. OMNI’s group consists of the 16 administrators as well as a manager from each home. The entire group is overseen by April Dowdall, OMNI’s director of human resources.

“There’s an amazing amount of support from head office,” notes Imamovic.

Each year the group picks five elements which OMNI’s 16 homes will focus on to help improve worker safety in the homes throughout the following 12 months. Every staff member in each home must get trained in these elements.

The five elements focused on in 2007 include:

• Orientation
• Musculoskeletal disorders
• Pandemic planning
• Lifts and transfers
• Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS)