The burden of disabling musculoskeletal pain arising from work-related causes among workers in many health care settings in Ontario is substantial. This project proposes to measure the impact of a three-year organization change initiative to reduce the burden of work-related injury and illness in Ontario’s largest multi-site acute care community hospital system. The Niagara Health System (NHS) is an acute care community hospital system with seven sites in the Niagara region employing more than 4,300 staff. The initiative has been developed by Niagara Health System management and labour unions, with technical support provided by the Occupational Disability Response Team of the Ontario Federation of Labour, the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers and the Public Services Health & Safety Association. In 2011, NHS senior management and union representatives commenced implementation of a three-year organization change plan to reduce the incidence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, improve workplace practices in the area of return-to-work and disability prevention and strengthen the culture of safety in the organization. Over 2012-2014, objectives of the organizational change plan are to reduce incidence of total compensation claims registered with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) by 25% and to reduce total days of disability provided wage replacement benefits by WSIB by 25%.
•To conduct a quasi-experimental design, comparing workers’ compensation claim incidence and duration in NHS to a comparable Ontario health care system for a 3 year period prior to and following Jan 2012.
•To conduct a repeated survey of a sample of approximately 350 NHS staff for 3 years (2012-14).
•To conduct two detailed case studies of the organizational change process, using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
The results of this applied research project will be relevant to acute care health care institutions in Ontario and will be expected to provide evidence-based guidance to quality improvement initiatives focused on the protection of the health of health care workers in Ontario. This research project will also address gaps in the evidence base concerning effectiveness and cost/ benefit ratio of integrated initiatives to reduce the burden of work-related disorders in health care workers.