Three perspectives on work-related injury surveillance systems

Abstract

This paper reviews surveillance approaches for occupational injuries and evaluates three emerging methodologies for the enhancement of work‐related injury surveillance: (1) narrative data analysis, (2) data set linkage, and (3) comprehensive company‐wide surveillance systems. All three methods are the result of new applications of computer hardware and software that have apparent strengths and limitations. A major strength is the improved description of work exposures and related injuries leading to better understanding of injury etiology. This understanding, however, is limited by the data quality and completeness entered on records at the time of the injury. We recommend (1) more widespread inclusion of narrative text in databases, analyses of which can be a valuable supplement to injury coded data; (2) the increased use of data set linkage studies to combine injury and work‐history data; and (3) the development of comprehensive company‐wide surveillance systems to expedite the use of epidemiologic data for occupational injury prevention activities. Further development of these methods and others is encouraged, especially in light of technological advancements in data capture, analysis and presentation. Only through such efforts can we best apply epidemiologic principles to preventing injuries in the workplace. Am. J. Ind. Med. 32:116–128, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss Inc.

Prevention of injuries at work: the role of the occupational physician

“…For many individual companies, basic information is simply not available for developing minimal daily practical preventive strategies and, again, the approach seems too statistical and administrative Solomon 2002;Sorock et al 1997).…”

“…Helpful indication on how to develop such instruments are depicted in publications from ILO (1996ILO ( , 1998a and in a comprehensive paper by Sorock et al (1997), together with strengths, limitations and clarifying practical examples from the field.…”

“…This particular option has rarely been used in OI prevention. However, linking OI data with other files available at the company level seems to be promising for OI surveillance and prevention (Kelsh et al 2004;Sorock et al 1997).…”

Promoting Patient Safety and Preventing Medical Error in Emergency Departments

“…118 There is, however, a danger in this approach. In theory, incident reports, as peer review documents, are not discoverable as legal evidence.…”

Use of a National Hospitalization Register to identify industrial sectors carrying high risk of severe injuries: A three-year cohort study of more than 900,000 Danish men

“…Some studies are based on hospital records [Fuortes et al, 1990] and hospitalizations [Waller et al, 1995], others on company information systems [Sorock et al, 1997] or labor statistics [Parker et al, 1994], and some studies include workers seen at emergency departments . Many surveillance studies deal with work-related injuries, but to our knowledge this study is the ®rst dealing with hospitalized injuries of an entire nation.…”