Citation

Altree-Williams S. J. Health Saf. Res. Pract. 2013; 5(1): 2-8.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Safety Institute of Australia, Publisher LexisNexis Media)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Consideration of the OHS prevention model of Australian OHS/WHS legislation and current OHS practice identified two numerical and independent criteria through which the OHS outcome performance for a work environment can be measured: the reasonably practicable criterion (using the observed case rate and case severity outcomes for the work environment) and the continuous improvement criterion (using the rate of change of the parameters of these characteristics through time).

The continuous improvement criterion is a physical example of geometric convergence and can be mathematically described using a single parameter, m, the annual geometric convergence rate. The continuous improvement criterion on evaluation proved to be easily and broadly applicable; any work environment anywhere in the world can rank their OHS outcome performance absolutely by measuring their m value. When applied to Australian case rate data for serious cases in the occupational injury (safety) domain over the seven-year period 2002-03 to 2009-10, the best performing industries were electricity,gas,water; mining; finance & insurance; government admin & defence; construction; agriculture, forestry, fishing; and transport & storage. Some further potential applications of m are also described.

The reasonably practicable criterion was found to become more functional when applied to self-similar sub sectors within an industry or an occupation.

Language: en