The Tulsa fire chief says he may have found a way to slash the alarming number of workers compensation claims stemming from injuries in his department.
An injury review board that is set to launch by June 1 will investigate firefighter injuries and begin updating Fire Department procedures to avoid repeating needlessly risky activities at and away from emergency scenes, Chief Ray Driskell said.
"The idea came about because I didn't think we were giving enough attention to firefighter injuries - not just to try to reduce workman's comp but to try to reduce injuries themselves," said Driskell, who took over as chief last year. "We need to find out why they're getting hurt and start correcting it."
Tulsa firefighters filed more than 6,000 workers compensation claims totaling more than $19 million between 2001 and 2011 - the most claims and the highest amount of any city department in that span, according to a city report released earlier this year.
The Fire Department's injury incident rate in 2011 was four times the national rate, with more than one injury for every two firefighters.
Under the current system for reporting injuries, firefighters are asked to call a city-contracted hot-line, which then sends administrators an email summarizing the report.
"Now that we've been watching that, we're starting to see some reoccurring things happening, but we need to know what's going on," Driskell said. "Is it a particular truck, a particular shift?
"Our goal is to try and prevent some of this from happening and try not to be reactive, as we've done in the past."
The review board will consist of Administrative Chief Chuck French, Deputy Chief Scott Clark, Safety and Wellness Chief Michael Atchison, and the assistant chief in charge of the injured firefighter.
Atchison said the group will interview injured firefighters, review injury reports and look for common injury circumstances.
If the board determines that a particular activity is causing injuries, administrators will send a department-wide notice and begin raising awareness of the problem, he said.
Although some injuries can't be avoided, others can come in those most routine, preventable situations - such as slipping on a wet floor or picking up heavy equipment, Atchison said.
"Say we're having a lot of back injuries by stepping off the truck or picking up a piece of equipment. Do we have to make it mandatory that it takes two people to pick stuff up off the truck?" he asked.
"The nature of our job is you're going to have injuries. What we're trying to do is reduce the minor injuries from happening."
He said the department already has stringent safety training and procedures at every level, including cadet training and periodic brush-ups.
He stressed, however, that "it's one job where you're not going to be able to say, 'We're going to come in to work and someone's not going to get hurt.' "
When an emergency call goes out in the middle of the night, "within one minute and 30 some-odd seconds, you could go from dead asleep to inside a house fire, and you don't have time to stretch," he said. "That's where you pull muscles, you'll strain things, you'll slip.
"That's just the nature of the game."
By the numbers
Firefighter workers comp
$19 million
Total of workers comp claims, 2001-2011
$477,619
Largest single workers comp claim, 2001-2011
$21,623.79
Average claim value in 2011
6,000
Approximate number of claims filed, 2001-2011
221
Number of injuries, 2012
Source: City of Tulsa and Oklahoma Department of Labor
Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Fighting injuries
