By Louise Donahue (Exerpt) If you want to cut workers’ compensation costs, consider the whole employee--not just the injury. That's the goal of a progressive, employee-centered program launched by University of California Santa Cruz's (UCSC) Workers’ Compensation Team.

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The idea is to provide tools and training to supervisors so they can more effectively lead the injury prevention effort, and, likewise, to provide tools and training to employees so they can take a more active role in preserving their own health and safety.


To get employees thinking about safety right from the start, the team is working to expand the New Employee Orientation program to provide more focused attention to injury prevention and management. There, new employees will learn about campus resources on everything from ergonomic workstations to lifting heavy loads.


Existing employees will be reached through a training and development program to be launched in fall 2004. Additional outreach is planned through the fall Wellness Fair.


On the medical side, the team is trying to develop the specialist physician pool that treats UCSC injured employees. In partnership with Dominican Occupational Health Center, UCSC sponsored a physicians’ forum on March 18 to educate physicians about UCSC’s program and clear up misconceptions that have been leading some top physicians to stop treating workers’ compensation patients. “Our goal is first and foremost to prevent injuries, but if a UCSC employee is injured we want to ensure that the best treating physicians are available to help return an employee to health,” explained Lisa Rose, the leader of the Workers’ Compensation Team.


The Workers’ Compensation Team is part of the campus's Executive Budget Committee business transformation project. The initiative is designed to save the campus money without job reductions, as well as reduce and manage injuries to sustain a healthy workforce.


With UCSC having the highest injury rates in the UC system, the team has its work cut out for it. Repetitive stress injuries are the largest single source of workers’ compensation claims, but claims cover a wide range. In addition to team leader Rose, director of Materiel Management, team members include Gesna Clarke, chief operations officer for Colleges and University Housing Services; Buddy Morris, director for campus Environmental Health and Safety; Jim Schoonover, Environmental Health and Safety adviser for Physical and Biological Sciences; Saladin Sale, risk manager for the Office of Risk Management; Barbara Perman, manager for Staff Human Resources Training and Development; Ryan Andrews, manager of the OPERS Wellness Center; and AVCOR consultant Eric Robbins.

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