Accounting for nearly half a million injuries per year, MSDs represent one-third of all workers’ compensation costs, resulting in direct costs of more than $20 billion. This figure continues to increase, leading insurers and brokers to look beyond traditional injury prevention approaches.
Over the past three years, Bardavon has partnered with insurance carriers and brokers to help their customers reduce avoidable body-stressing MSD claims volumes in a cost-effective and sustainable way.
Decades of research have indicated that the most effective injury prevention methods are found in elite sports. These methods involve the measurement of an athlete’s movements using wearable technology and analysis of the data collected to identify injury risk and guide action to reduce risk. This technology (validated by leading universities) is now available to companies through the Bardavon platform.
Each employer faced the following challenges in reducing the risk of musculoskeletal injuries:
Use wearable technology and data analysis to assess the physical demands on various workers, identify opportunities to reduce injury risks, take measurable steps to reduce injury risk, and then re-assess to validate the improvements.
Wearable technology sensors were used to measure the movements of selected work groups for three different employers over four months. Sensors were used to perform Task Assessment and then as a Movement Coach as outlined further below.
A safety professional placed the sensors on a worker and recorded data and video through the smartphone app as the worker performed the work tasks. This enabled:
The workers wore the sensors to measure their movements throughout a shift. The smartphone app provided real-time alerts when the worker moved in a way that increased their injury risk. This enabled:
To ensure high engagement with the wearable technology, the safety team onboarding process involved a 30-minute online training session, and the worker engagement process involved sports-themed posters around the worksite and a short instructional video.
When data and video was collected from workers performing the task, it enabled an accurate assessment of the load on the body. This investigation highlighted any opportunity to reduce the injury risk through task modification or changes in operating procedures with the safety team.
Employer 1 was an underground construction, drilling, and mining company. The above charts demonstrated the difference between the load on the arm when overhead drilling with two different types of drills. The first drill (red circle) increased the load on the arm by 34% compared to the second drill (circled in green). This resulted in a reduction of injuries recorded in this occupation from 21.47 per million hours to 0.
Employer 2 was a metal recycling company. Each point on the adjacent scatter chart represents a Movement Coach report, consisting of data collected on movement stress throughout each worker’s shift. Each person in the chart completed the same job, highlighting the many approaches to the work used and the corresponding effect on the workers’ bodies.
The arm load score on the Y-axis represents the physical demands on the worker’s shoulder and arms, and the back load score on the X-axis represents the physical demands on the worker’s back.
The data in the chart enabled the high-risk workers to be identified (outlined in red). Additional injury prevention training was provided to these workers, which reduced their scores. Employer 2 observed a 45% reduction in ergonomic-related injuries during the assessment period as a result of this targeted training approach.
“Bardavon has allowed us to implement informed safety controls, which has led to a decrease in musculoskeletal injury rates and subsequent claims costs across multiple departments. This is evident through comparing our incident and claims records, both pre and post-Bardavon implementation.” –Brad G., Health and Safety Consultant
Employer 3 was a large hardware chain. The above chart shows their Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (TRIFR) for the workers involved. During the four-month program, the workers wore the sensors continuously, and the safety team conducted task assessments on the most physically demanding tasks. Modifications were made to several tasks, including the introduction of manual handling aids. As a result, employer 3 saw a 20% reduction in their TRIFR.
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Bardavon’s injury prevention trial involved three different employers in three different industries: retail, mining and underground construction, and metal recycling. However, all employers shared the same problem: a high number of avoidable, body-stressing MSD workers’ compensation claims. The Bardavon program was comprehensive enough to identify and address the unique injury risks associated with the work tasks for each employer and take action to reduce these injury risks in a measurable way. This ultimately resulted in reduced MSD claims numbers for the insurance carrier.
All technologies are optimized for certain worker populations. Bardavon’s prevention technology is best suited for employers who are facing the following problems:
Contact businessdevelopment@bardavon.com