The COVID-19 outbreak resulted in elevated hospitalization cases despite the downturn in work activity; for 2022, however, ISN’s analysis shows a stabilization of cases with statistics that begin to return to pre-pandemic data sets. In addition, 2022 saw the lowest number of amputation cases in the last six years.
“As reducing SIFs remains a focus across industries, ISN is committed to developing avenues for organizations to meet their safety goals and ensuring they have access to the latest tools and best practices to improve hazard recognition,” says Brian Callahan, president and COO at ISN. “From the company level down to the individual, organizations can intimately scrutinize the competency of contractors to safely perform work through ISN’s suite of tools. By enabling organizations to anchor their safety initiatives in real time data trends, we aim to support the most important goal: ensuring that employees return home safely to their families each day.”
Key takeaways:
- The analysis of more than 127,000 recordable incidents from 2017-2022 showed nearly 24,000 serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs), including more than 20,000 hospitalizations, 3,154 amputations and 871 fatalities.
- 2022 data shows a return of sprains, strains and tears as the No. 1 incident reported by contractors from all industries, replacing fractures and dislocations. This can be correlated with an aging workforce.
- As workforces ramped back up to pre-pandemic capacity, several factors played into fluctuations in SIF data for 2022, including a stabilization of exposure hours, temporary and new workforces, as well as a re-learning period from significant dips in work activity. 2022 saw a drastic increase in the number of fatalities, with the Top 3 causes including contact with object or equipment (55%); trips, slips and falls (21%); and overexertion and bodily reaction (13%).
- The highest rate of fatalities is not correlated with the largest company size, but rather mid-size corporations. Much like Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR), smaller companies who have a SIF event occur are seeing the biggest impact in their overall SIF rate for each SIF event. Regardless of company size, SIFs have a significant impact on both the affected individual and the organization.
● Human factors continue to be an overwhelming contributor to transportation-related deaths. Based on job titles, drivers were the second most likely group to experience a SIF event. Additionally, transportation averaged the second highest average Days Away from Work in 2022 at 95 days per case.
● Even with the wide variety of hazards and risks in the manufacturing industry, ISN’s analysis shows that overall SIF rates have been below average compared to other industries. Also in contrast to other industries, the most affected body part in the manufacturing industry was lower extremities.
