Tag: Injuries

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Health

Relentless Amazon has new plan to chop employee accidents by 50%

Relentless Amazon has new plan to cut worker injuries by 50%

The working conditions in the Amazon warehouse and the injuries suffered by workers were a constant source of tension between the corporate giant and its critics. A new safety and wellness program will be rolled out at all US locations by the end of the year as Jeff Bezos’ company continues to add large numbers of new employees.

CHRIS J RATCLIFFE | AFP | Getty Images

Amazon is known for its relentless nature. Can this corporate approach, which has led to so much success, be successfully applied to workplace injury prevention? Amazon employees and the world are figuring out what could be the greatest experiment in safety culture in the workplace that has ever been conducted.

Amazon announced on Monday that WorkingWell, a program that provides physical, mental, and nutritional support to employees, will be rolled out across the U.S. operations network by the end of the year to reduce the frequency of reportable incidents – an OSHA measurement of injuries and Workers’ illnesses – by 50% by 2025. The company, which has faced criticism of working conditions due to its size and increased customer demand, is investing $ 300 million in safety projects this year without breaking the program specifically as part of that budget.

WorkingWell is not entirely new to Amazon employees, nor is it planned to reduce the injury rate. It was first piloted in 2019 and has already reached a large number of workers, 859,000 employees in 350 locations in North America and Europe. In Amazon’s latest earnings report, released in late April, the company said it was expanding the program, although it didn’t provide all the details. A company executive said never having offered all program components in all locations and hopes to reach 1,000 locations by the end of 2021 and then expand to Europe (where pilot locations exist) and beyond.

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“We want them to be healthy, safe and interested in Amazon and proud to work for them,” said Heather MacDougall, vice president, global health and safety at Amazon. Employee health and wellbeing “is not just a topic of conversation,” she said.

Amazon is adding new employees at a breakneck pace. The youngest employees include 75,000 workers in the United States and Canada. The retail, logistics, and tech giant hired large numbers of workers during Covid, more than 500,000 in 2020, and a common type of injury known as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) – which was discussed by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon , recently wrote extensively in an annual letter to shareholders – is associated with new employees.

About 40% of work-related injuries on Amazon are MSDs, including sprains or strains caused by repetitive motion. Bezos noted in the letter that the program helped reduce injuries caused by MSD by 32% from 2019 to 2020. Highlighting the problem of workers and work culture, Bezos wrote, “If you read some of the news you might think we don’t have any.” Care for the employees. ”

According to John Dony, Senior Director at the National Safety Council, MSD risk exposure can and should be measured and reduced. “Just as coaches are now preventing pitchers from throwing too many pitches in baseball and addressing their risk of injury from mechanics, employers can also help prevent MSDs in the workplace by systematically measuring exposure to MSD risk factors and by systematically measuring exposure to MSD risk factors and assessing workplace and health problems Redesign work items to limit them. ” Exposure to these risk factors, “said Dony.

Body, Mind, and Wellbeing of an Amazon Worker

Program elements that will be added in all US locations include daily meetings for operations managers and small groups of employees near workplaces so they can watch short interactive videos on topics such as grasping and manipulating, pushing and pulling, and feeding. Amazon calls them “Health & Safety Huddles”.

Experts say there isn’t a lot of data on video training, but when skilled on-site professionals teach staff positioning to avoid injuries and spot checks on the floor, it has been shown to work and it has become more popular for warehouse operations to employ coaches in recent years.

Among the more than 6,000 security employees at Amazon are certified sports trainers, so-called injury prevention specialists, who usually work in separate wellness centers, but also in buildings that offer individual coaching with employees and ergonomic adjustments to the workstation, a spokeswoman said by email.

Hourly prompts at workplaces encourage employees to engage in physical and mental activities that should not last longer than 30 to 60 seconds. However, the company says it can decrease muscle and mental fatigue and reduce the risk of injury. Experts say stretching is key to injury prevention, although most popular workplace programs that are successful run sessions of at least five minutes several times per shift.

Amazon will have dedicated spa areas in buildings dedicated to activities like volunteer stretching and interactive videos. Other aspects of the WorkingWell program include videos on mindfulness practices such as meditation, which will be available at interactive kiosks, as well as promoting healthier eating options and making them available to employees.

“We made hundreds of changes based on employee feedback,” said MacDougall of the new program, which will include a WorkingWell mobile app that is currently being developed to provide access to home wellness education and training.

Some Amazon ideas aren’t new, but the scale is new

Occupational safety experts say many of the elements of the new Amazon program are common features of workplace culture where safety is a priority. In many ways, it is the sheer size of the effort that is striking and can provide scientists and professionals with a new source of data on workplace injury prevention.

“I don’t know of any company with so many people doing this type of work at the same time,” said Deborah Roy, president of the American Society of Safety Professionals. “Just by the sheer numbers, there is a good chance that we can learn from their implementation if they collect data well and do comparisons in a controlled manner. … But we need to see the data published.”

Amazon said it was working with universities on research into workplace safety, including understanding the mechanisms behind MSD injuries, and it was working with health and safety experts, but an Amazon spokeswoman turned down formal plans for sharing of research to work out even though she said so is something the company is contemplating for the future.

I am not aware of any company with so many workers doing this type of work at once.

Deborah Roy, President of the American Society of Safety Professionals

New employees who are not conditioned to do their jobs may be the most susceptible to MSDs. However, as the largest tenant in the US, Amazon also faces the problem of an aging workforce that needs to be kept healthy in a tight and shrinking job market. “They want to take the time and spend the money upfront on new employees, get them to do the job right, and help them position themselves better,” said Roy, but added that existing, older employees ” If you do not.” If you don’t support this workforce, you won’t have new young people to take their place. We just don’t have volume in many parts of the country. “

Some of the technology-driven injury prevention ideas Bezos outlined in the letter, such as: B. Algorithms that allow employees to rotate through jobs continued to be used in a pilot phase, but are not part of this program.

Claims that Amazon has a high rate of work-related accidents have continued over the years, especially during times of high demand like the upcoming Prime Day. Amazon has also fought in the court system to keep some infringement records confidential. The company also recently faced a union formation vote at an Alabama site, in which union officials said injuries were a factor in helping their efforts.

A reduction in accidents at work by 50% is possible

Jeffrey Ku, an operations manager from Amazon provided to CNBC who has piloted several aspects of the program at one of its Denver facilities, “DEN2,” said he had no injury in the six months he was in his team was responsible for training.

“50% is doable,” said Roy. “There have been many organizations that have been able to do this. It is a focus and must be a value in this company.”

While it may seem like a high bar, according to OSHA’s own published studies, companies with the right safety management system should be able to reduce injury rates by 52%.

Roy saw the change firsthand and oversaw an inventory program that increased the operations of 12 out of 100 injured manual laborers to zero injuries over a two-year period. “It is to their advantage to address these issues,” she said. “The support of these people contributes to business results and productivity.”

Having offered “a lot of training for new hires,” Ku has found the short videos and even the shortest pauses to reset helpful. “I’m very adamant about safety, security, security,” he said.

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Health

Yehuda Ben-Yishay, Pioneer in Treating Mind Accidents, Dies at 88

Yehuda Ben-Yishay, Pioneer in Treating Brain Injuries, Dies at 88

Yehuda Ben-Yishay was born on February 11, 1933 in Cluj, a city in the Transylvania region in western Romania. His father, Chaim Ben-Yishay, was a businessman; his mother Leah (Finkelstein) Ben-Yishay was a seamstress.

His family survived the Second World War largely unscathed. Although hundreds of thousands of fellow Romanian Jews died during the Holocaust, hundreds of thousands survived, especially in the southern part of Transylvania, where the family had moved just before the war.

The Ben-Yishays were zealous Zionists and in 1946 boarded a converted cattle ship with about 2,000 other Jews heading for Palestine. The British authorities had banned such mass migration and when Yehuda arrived he and his two brothers and sisters were separated from their parents when they were taken to refugee camps.

After Israel gained independence in 1948, Dr. Ben-Yishay in Nahal, part of the Israel Defense Forces that established agricultural settlements. He later attended the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in the hope of studying psychology, but there was no one to teach it: Arab guerrillas had murdered the department head and several colleagues in 1948.

Dr. Ben-Yishay studied sociology instead, graduating in 1957. He received a scholarship to the New School for Social Research in Manhattan and arrived at the end of the year.

To cover his living expenses, he taught Hebrew and worked with retirees, including at a summer camp in Brewster, NY. There he met Myrna Pitterman know. They married in 1960 and had three sons, Ari, Ron and Seth. All survive him along with his brothers Israel and Meir; his sister Pnina; and eight grandchildren.

At the New School, Dr. Ben-Yishay headed by a German emigrant psychologist named Kurt Goldstein. Dr. Goldstein insisted that patients with traumatic injuries could only recover in a “holistic” setting that would take into account not only their physical well-being but also their emotional and spiritual health.

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Health

Compensation for victims of Covid vaccine accidents is restricted

Compensation for victims of Covid vaccine injuries is limited

Joanna Oakley got her annual flu shot in 2015 and immediately knew something was wrong.

“It felt like it hit the bone right away. And over the next few days I noticed that it was getting increasingly sore and it got where I couldn’t move my arm, I couldn’t turn my steering wheel in my car . ” She said.

As a nurse, Oakley is trained to give injections.

“It wasn’t until it happened to me that I started researching. I found that it actually happened more often than I would ever imagine,” she said.

Nurse Joanna Oakley and her son.

Source: Joanna Oakley

Oakley says she had three surgeries and that her arm never returned to normal. She suffered a so-called shoulder injury related to vaccine administration, or SIRVA.

“As a mother and wife and as a nurse, I was more concerned about what this injury would do to me, as far as I know, could I get it repaired? Would I be normal again?” She said.

Oakley is not alone. SIRVA is the most common vaccination violation for which people seek government compensation.

Twenty-one people have filed claims for adverse reactions to Covid-19 shots in the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program. This emerges from a response to the Department of Health and Human Services Freedom of Information Act to Professor Peter Meyers of the George Washington Law School.

To date, there have been seven reports of shoulder injuries from Covid-19 bullets as per the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which is maintained by the Centers for Disease Control of Prevention and does not review the reports. However, none of the 21 Covid-19 vaccine claims submitted to the compensation program are related to shoulder injuries, according to FOIA records.

Joanna Oakley suffered a serious shoulder injury from a flu vaccine.

Source: Joanna Oakley

“I have represented many clients whose lives have been changed by an unfortunate side effect of vaccination. It happens. It is rare, but it does. And often they are on the verge of the end of their life,” said attorney Altom Maglio.

The Countermeasure Compensation Program provides “compensation for those injured or dying of a vaccination, drug, device, or other so-called countermeasure necessary to prevent, treat, or combat a pandemic, epidemic, or security threat,” it says on the program website.

On March 10, 2020, then Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, made a statement under the Public Preparedness and Emergency Preparedness Act approving this program for Covid-related claims.

HHS has a far more generous program known as the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Currently, injuries are treated by 16 commonly used vaccines such as the flu, whooping cough and polio, but the Covid vaccine is not because it is not yet approved for use in children.

The countermeasure compensation program rarely pays off and rejects more than 90% of submitted claims according to HHS and FOIA records. In this case, claims averaging $ 200,000, according to HHS – about 60% less than the average National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program payment. Since the program was launched in 2009, only 29 applications for the H1N1 and smallpox vaccines have been paid in August. One of these has been classified as shoulder pain by HHS.

Maglio calls the CICP a “black hole”.

“Really, it’s a compensation program in name only and not in reality,” he said.

The VICP offers victims the opportunity to sue in court with judges and lawyers and to have the right to appeal. Among the other, he said, there is no right of appeal.

Unlike the VICP, the CICP does not cover legal fees or pain and suffering.

The VICP has paid approximately $ 4.5 billion in total compensation as of March 1 since filing claims in 1998. According to HHS, this dwarfs the approximately $ 6 million in paid services of the CICP over the life of the program.

In July last year, HHS proposed a new regulation aimed at reversing existing consumer protection for shoulder injuries caused by vaccination shots. These were caused by “negligence of the vaccine administrator” rather than the vaccines themselves. That would have forced people with shoulder injuries to sue whoever gave the vaccine, Maglio said.

It was supposed to go into effect in February, but the new administration under President Joe Biden has halted all of the rules proposed in the final days of the Trump administration.

The Biden government last week announced plans to withdraw the final settlement.

“HHS is also proposing to repeal the final rule amid fears it could negatively impact vaccine administrators, which goes against the federal government’s efforts to increase vaccinations in the US to address coronavirus disease 2019 to respond to (COVID-19) pandemic, “HHS wrote in its notice to withdraw the proposed rules.

A spokesman for Health Resources and Service Administration, the agency within HHS that oversees vaccination injury compensation programs, declined to be interviewed. Instead, the CNBC agency referred to its public notices.

“I believe instead of weakening this program and removing injuries from it, it needs to be strengthened,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas. “It hasn’t really been revised since 1988 when it came into effect.”

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) speaks on lower drug prices, particularly those related to coronavirus, during a press conference on Capitol Hill March 5, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Samuel Corum | Getty Images

Doggett’s office estimates that 5,000 to 6,000 people across the country are likely to have an adverse reaction to the Covid vaccine, based on statistics from the H1N1 vaccine.

“It will build confidence to know that in the extremely unlikely event that there is a probability of 1 in a million that you will face adverse consequences that there is a fund to protect you so that you do not have to deal with huge medical bills and others Losses are charged. ” ” he said.

Oakley said she believed in vaccines but wanted a program in case things go wrong.

“I would only be concerned if someone took this program away, if someone had a problem, an adverse effect from a vaccine, they really would have no recourse,” she said.

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Health

Tiger Woods’ accidents are ‘harder to heal,’ says surgeon

Tiger Woods' injuries are ‘more difficult to heal,’ says surgeon

The orthopedist Dr. Scott Boden has broken down the extent of Tiger Woods’ injuries and his recovery in CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” after the golfer’s devastating crash on Tuesday morning.

“We know it’s an open fracture, which means that the bone has at least temporarily entered the skin and broken in multiple places. This was a very high-energy fracture that makes it a little more difficult.” to heal, “said the professor of orthopedic surgery at Emory University School of Medicine.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Woods was fortunate to be alive after crashing his sport utility vehicle on a steep, winding road in Palos Verdes, south of Los Angeles.

Tiger Woods is “awake, responsive, and recovering” from lengthy surgery to repair what a doctor calls a “major injury” to his right leg. This emerges from a statement posted on his official Twitter account on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. (CET). It is the 10th operation for the 45 year old golfer.

Dr. Anish Mahajan, chief medical officer at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, said Woods suffered “comminuted open fractures” in the upper and lower portions of his right leg. To stabilize Wood’s leg, doctors had to insert a rod, screws, and pins into his foot and ankle.

Boden told host Shepard Smith that the additional information about the golfer’s ankle and foot injuries says a lot about recovery time.

“If these injuries affect the smooth articular surface of the bones on which they move in the ankle or foot, it could be a problem in long-term recovery and arthritis and restore full range of motion,” Boden said in a Wednesday evening interview.

Boden also noted that “there is a risk of infection” but that we do not know the size of the skin opening so “we cannot be sure about it”. He added that while the rebound will be tenacious, “it is never advisable to count tigers when it comes to making a comeback.”

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Business

United Boeing 777 suffers engine failure after takeoff from Denver, particles discovered however no accidents

United Boeing 777 suffers engine failure after takeoff from Denver, debris found but no injuries

A United Airlines plane

Nicolas Economou | NurPhoto | Getty Images

A United Airlines Boeing 777-200 bound for Honolulu suffered an engine failure shortly after taking off from Denver on Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The plane returned to Denver, where it landed safely. Images shared on social media showed what appeared to be part of the engine nacelle in front of a house while police shared other debris. United said no injuries were reported on board the flight.

“The FAA is aware of reports of debris near the aircraft’s flight path,” the agency said in a statement.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA said they are investigating the incident. The Broomfield Police Department in Colorado said the plane dropped debris in several neighborhoods and warned not to touch or move any part of the plane.

United Flight 328 had 231 passengers and 10 crew members on board.

United said it is in contact with the FAA, NTSB, as well as local law enforcement agencies.

“All passengers and crew were dropped off and transported back to the terminal,” United said in a statement in Denver. “We are now working on getting our customers on a new flight to Honolulu in the next few hours.”

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents United cabin crews, said its staff support and safety committees provide assistance to the crews.

“We are grateful that the plane landed safely,” said the union.

Boeing said it had received reports of the incident.

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Politics

Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick Dies from Accidents in Professional-Trump Riot

Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick Dies from Injuries in Pro-Trump Riot

A US Capitol police officer died Thursday evening from injuries sustained “during the physical confrontation” with pro-Trump rioters who descended on the US Capitol the day before the authorities.

The officer, Brian D. Sicknick, was only the fourth member of the force to be killed on duty since it was founded two centuries ago. After the chaos of Wednesday’s siege and the accusations that filled the waves in the air the next day, there was silence on the Capitol grounds late Thursday as hundreds of police officers from numerous agencies lined the streets to pay tribute to their fallen comrade.

But the loss of life also underscored the failure of law enforcement to prevent the siege of the Capitol. And with the leaders of both political parties calling for an investigation, it seemed likely to lead to calls for profound changes to the Capitol Police.

The circumstances surrounding Mr. Sicknick’s death were not immediately clear, and Capitol Police said only that he “died of on-duty injuries”. At some point in the chaos – when the mob raged through the halls of Congress while lawmakers were forced to hide under their desks – he was hit by a fire extinguisher, according to two police officers.

“He went back to his department office and collapsed,” the Capitol Police said in the statement. “He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.”

Mr. Sicknick, who joined the force in 2008, died on Thursday around 9:30 p.m., Capitol Police said in a statement. The Washington Police Department Homicide is one of several law enforcement agencies involved in an investigation into his death and the general circumstances surrounding the violence in the Capitol.

The officer’s death brings Wednesday’s deaths from Mayhem to five. One participant in the pro-Trump rampage, Ashli ​​Babbitt, was fatally shot and killed by a Capitol police officer inside the building while climbing through a broken window into the speaker’s lobby. Three other people died after allegedly experiencing medical emergencies in the Capitol area, police said.

It was unclear where Mr. Sicknick’s encounter with the rioters took place, but photos and a video posted by a local reporter on the night of the mayhem showed a man spraying a fire extinguisher outside the Senate Chamber, leaving a small number of Police officers enter the area on a nearby staircase.

Legislators in both chambers and by both parties promised to find out how those responsible for the security of the Capitol had allowed a violent mob to enter the building. The House Democrats announced a “robust” investigation into the law enforcement collapse.

Three of the leading security officials in Congress – Steven A. Sund, Capitol Police Chief, Sergeant Paul D. Irving, and Sergeant Michael C. Stenger – announced their resignation Thursday.

The NCOs are responsible for the security in the chambers and the associated office buildings, while Mr. Sund supervised around 2,000 employees of the Capitol Police – a force that is larger than that of many small towns.

Earlier on Friday, Ohio Representative Tim Ryan, a Democrat who heads the Home Funds Subcommittee that oversees the Capitol Police’s budget, expressed grief over the death of Mr. Sicknick in a Twitter post.

“This tragic loss is a reminder of the bravery of the law enforcement officers who protect us every day,” wrote Ryan.

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Jan. 8, 2021, 9:50 a.m. ET

Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who chaired the House Appropriations Committee that opened a law enforcement review to the Capitol riot, said her “heart breaks at senseless death.”

“To honor his memory, we must ensure that the mob that attacked the People’s House and those who instigated them are brought to justice,” she said on Twitter.

Hundreds of police and rescue workers lined the streets by the Capitol for a moment of silence to honor Mr. Sicknick on Thursday evening. They stood in lines on Constitution Avenue and 3rd Street, saluting in silence as a police car drove through town for Mr. Sicknick, according to videos from local reporters.

Police said in their own statement that “the entire USCP division expresses its deepest condolences to the family and friends of Officer Sicknick for their loss and mourns the loss of a friend and colleague.”

Officials said around 50 police officers were injured when the mob flooded barricades, threw objects, smashed doors, broke windows and overpowered some of the police officers who tried to withstand the advancing crowd.

Capitol Police reported 14 arrests during the raid, including two people alleged to have assaulted a police officer. Local police arrested dozens of other people, mainly related to illegal entry and violations of the city’s curfew on Wednesday evening.

The Capitol Police are solely responsible for protecting the Capitol and the surrounding area.

Over the course of two centuries, the force has evolved and its mission has shifted and grown with the nature of the threats to the institution.

One event that had one of the most profound effects on the armed forces occurred on March 1, 1954, when Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the visitors’ gallery on lawmakers below and wounded five. Shortly afterwards, the police were issued weapons for the first time.

Exactly 17 years later, on March 1, 1971, an explosion broke through a toilet on the ground floor of the Senate wing. The Weather Underground, a militant left-wing group that carried out a series of bomb attacks in the late 1960s and 1970s, took responsibility. The incident resulted in all visitors having to be checked for weapons and explosives.

The first recorded death of a member of the armed forces was in 1984 when Sgt. Christopher Eney, 37, was killed during a training drill.

The last time a Capitol police officer was killed on duty was in the summer of 1998 when police officer Jacob J. Chestnut and Detective John Gibson of Russell Eugene Weston Jr., a man tormented by visions of an oppressive covenant, Government were fatally shot.

Mr. Weston, shot and injured in the incident, stormed into the heart of the nation for law and order. It all happened in a matter of minutes and reached its bloody conclusion when it reached the majority whip office complex on the first floor.

A fourth person, Angela Dickerson, 24, a tourist, was injured but recovered.

President Bill Clinton called the shooting at the eastern front entrance to the nation’s legislative forum “a moment of ferocity on the doorstep of American civilization”.

Legislators of both parties said at the time that they were hoping the bloodshed would allow a moment for reflection when partisan divisions could begin to heal.

Two decades later, the fourth Capitol Police officer in history was killed.

Emily Cochrane and Katie Benner contributed to the coverage.