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Languages : en
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Book Description
Background Work-related accidents and their associated costs have been a serious concern for management, especially as statistics show that there is no clear relationship between the frequency of injuries and the costs of accidents. Methods A systematic appraisal of available literature was conducted to identify the best approaches to the classification and estimation of insured and uninsured components of work-related accident costs. The appraisal seeks to identify meaningful components and predictors of the cost of accidents. One part of our research specifically focused on the construction industry. The paper proposes a quantitative model to represent the real behaviour of the cost of accidents. A logarithmic distribution is proposed to represent the uninsured cost as a function of the severity of the accident and the occupation of the workforce exposed. Point estimates for administrative costs and production losses are obtained based on a generic case in order to quantify the equation in terms of monetary value. Results The selected publications introduced different methods to aggregate the cost of accidents but failed to provide an explanation of the relationship between the nature of accidents and their associated cost. Only three studies explored both insured and uninsured components and only four utilized incidence-based models. There is a need to move beyond linear ratios as predictors of the uninsured cost of accidents. Based on the exponential behaviour, it is possible to simplify the information required to provide an interval estimate of the cost of accidents. An aggregated study of the cost of accidents is used to allocate cost factors for each different component. For a given workforce composition, it is possible to obtain uninsured cost intervals that range from 0 to 3.5 times the insured costs. The evidence supports a logarithmic relationship between uninsured and insured costs, contrary to the principle of linear ratios. Conclusions An incidence-based method would best represent the nature of accidents. The proposed model requires only basic information about the accident: the severity of the injury and the composition of the workforce exposed. The value added from the model is not only an interval range for the insured costs but also the financial contribution of safety programs to the workplace that is often ignored by employers. This model is applicable in all industries, including the construction industry.