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. 2021 Jun 6;4(2):e306.
doi: 10.1002/hsr2.306. eCollection 2021 Jun.

Occupational injuries in California's health care and social assistance industry, 2009 to 2018

Kerri Wizner  1 , Fraser W Gaspar  1 , Adriane Biggio  2 , Steve Wiesner  3
Affiliations

Occupational injuries in California's health care and social assistance industry, 2009 to 2018

Kerri Wizner et al. Health Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Background and aim: The health care and social assistance industry has one of the highest rates of non-fatal occupational injuries and illnesses, both in California and nationally. In the coming years, the health care industry will face added pressure as both the population and workforce age. The aim of this study is to identify targeted populations that may benefit from interventions to prevent future injuries, keep the workforce healthy, and decrease injury-related costs.

Methods: This retrospective study analyzed California workers' compensation claims from 2009 to 2018 in the health care and social assistance industry.

Results: Across the four industry sub-groups, the highest number of claims came from hospitals (n = 243 605; 38.9%), followed by ambulatory care (n = 187 010; 29.9%), nursing/residential care (n = 133 206; 21.3%), and social assistance (n = 62 211; 9.9%). Nursing/residential care settings reported the highest proportion of both lifting injuries (15.8%) and low back injuries (16.9%) as compared to the other settings. Across all settings within California, nurses had the highest proportion of injuries (22.1%), followed by aides/assistants (20.4%), services staff (13.2%), administrative staff (11.0%), and technicians (10.3%). Thirty-five of California's counties had an increasing rate of population-adjusted claims during the study period.

Conclusion: This study found that while hospitals have the highest number of injuries, ambulatory care employee injuries are increasing. Employees involved in non-patient care tasks, such as those working in facility service roles, would likely benefit from additional injury prevention interventions.

Keywords: California; health care and social assistance industry; workers' compensation; workplace injury and illness.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Total injury counts (gray bars, left axis) and rates of injury per 10 000 employees (trendlines, right axis) per year, across the four health care industry sub‐category settings
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Proportions of job types injured in each of the health care industry settings
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
California county data by annual average case count (left), annual average incidence rate adjusted by county population (middle), and the change in adjusted annual incidence rates over the 10‐year study period (right)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. McNally S, Bloch D, Bouma C, et al. California commission on health and Safety and Workers' compensation 2019 annual Report. 2020. https://www.dir.ca.gov/chswc/Reports/2019/CHSWC_AnnualReport2019.pdf
    1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics . 2017 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. 2018. https://www.bls.gov/iif/osch0062.pdf
    1. State of California Department of Industrial Relations . Nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses in California. Office of Policy, Research and Legislation. https://www.dir.ca.gov/oprl/nonfatal.htm. Published 2020. Accessed January 12, 2019
    1. State of California Employment Development Department . Health Care in California. 2013. https://www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/SpecialReports/Health_Care_in_CA.pdf
    1. State of California Employment Development Department . Employment by Industry Data. Labor Market Information Resources and Data. Published 2020. https://www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/data/employment-by-industry.html

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