In the health care industry, many workers must move and lift patients on a daily basis. This moving and lifting has caused a great number of back injuries and has led to direct costs in workers' compensation, medical treatment and rehabilitation. There is also the threat of indirect costs including those from lost production, retraining and sick time.

One of the best ways to improve the safety of health care employees and prevent these injuries is by implementing an assessment plan for each worker to complete, compiling the data and evaluating the results and making the proper changes.

According to the California Department of Industrial Relations, one hospital in San Francisco was seeing a high incidence of employee back injuries and a quick worker turnover due to lifting and moving patients. The safety management team enforced a no lifting policy for nurses, and the hospital hired a specially trained lifting team who used mechanical lifting devices. 

After one year with the team on board, lost-time back injuries dropped from 16 to 1 and lost days from 215 to 6, according to the California division of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Implementing an injury prevention plan such as this one can help to better employees' overall health and work productivity.