Workplace Ergonomics
Healthcare workers are dedicated providers of care for people in need around the globe. Unfortunately, in the course of their jobs, they are exposed to a variety of risks and hazards ranging from hazardous materials to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare worker injuries are a serious issue to be addressed.
…employees in nursing and personal care facilities suffer over 200,000 work-related injuries and illnesses a year. Many of these are serious injuries. More than half require time away from work. Worker's compensation costs for the industry now amount to nearly $1 billion per year. Workers in nursing homes are 2x as likely as other workers to be injured on the job.
United States Department of Labor – Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)
Given their commitment to the well-being of their patients, it’s all that more important that they are provided with protection from injuries. While not all injuries are unavoidable, there are methods of reducing risk of injury to these valuable healthcare providers.
Read on for Healthcare Ergonomics Best Practices and Resources...
When designing industrial carts for manual material handling (MMH), a primary goal of an industrial ergonomist is to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal injuries by keeping the forces required to start, stop and maneuver the cart within recommended safe limits.
There are many facets of industrial cart design to consider to keeping cart operating forces within recommended limits – we’ll focus on the two many aspects.
Industrial cart handle placement and caster selection/placement are crucial to support industrial ergonomics and reduce workplace injuries.
In our blog, we’ve talked for awhile now about how ergonomics plays an important role in reducing workplace injuries. But when it comes to transporting heavy loads with material handling carts, having the right cart design and caster selection for the specific application can also […]
Join us for the next ErgoExpo Webinar October 9, 2019 | 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT Duration: 60 minutes Produced by: National Ergonomics Conference & ErgoExpo Manual material handling (MMH) tasks are typically complex, and cart handling is no exception. Manual material handling […]
By Raymond Erbe Effective Material Movement Needs To Be Safe A serious, and often subtle, workplace safety hazard is lurking in many fabricating operations. It starts with employees hauling equipment, workpieces, and products around the shop, even when they’re already taking precautions and following OSHA’s […]
By Kevin Hill Safety is of utmost importance in every industry. If you deal with handling heavy loads on a daily basis, then you must follow safe material handling techniques. It won’t just reduce injuries but also increase productivity and profits. This article focuses on […]
MHI has released a new video titled How Wheels and Casters Move the World. In this video, MHI touches upon the fundamental need for wheels and casters throughout the world, but most importantly, it highlights the Institute of Caster and Wheel Manufacturers (ICWM). Darcor is […]
Over the past four years, Darcor’s Workplace Ergonomics and Caster Technology Blog has emphasized the utility of good cart design, especially with regard to careful consideration of the required operating forces. Failure to act to control risk or making poor decisions in the design of manual cart handling tasks or in the evaluation of risk during push and pull tasks incurs costs from injuries, productivity losses, and operational inefficiencies.
To mitigate MMH risk from the start and ongoing, it is crucial to initially design the cart and task so that all operating forces are within safe limits and perform routine verification and maintenance to ensure that the operating forces remain within those recommended limits throughout the economic life of the cart.
The Darcor team just returned from AEC 2019 and we wanted to share some highlights. The show seems to be getting bigger every year, with a lot of first-time attendees this year. There were over 60 Exhibitor booths and 48 Ergo cup teams. There was a strong focus as always around the ergonomic benefits of carts and casters with 8 presentations focusing on the topics of push/pulls forces, and carts and casters ergonomics. The Ergo Cup once again demonstrated how simple, cost effective, worker driven solutions can have a significant impact on the ergonomics of a work task while also contributing to production efficiencies and other ROIs.
Attendees were very interested in Darcor's display on the debris rejecting capabilities of our Neoprene wheels, as well our capability to design ergonomic systems like the central brake and Zephyr.
There was a lot of discussion around the new BWC push/pull tool developed from the research done by OSU (SRI), which allows user to easily determine if their push/pull task is in a acceptable force range. The tool only requires a few input parameters and outputs a simple green, yellow or red indicator to let you know the percent of the population at risk for that task. These limits were determined biomechanically using accurate models of the spine to understand how to prevent damage to the spinal disks before exceeding these thresholds.
Read on to find out about the highlights from AEC 2019 Applied Ergonomics Conference including highlights from the keynote speaker, sessions, and trends.
MHI has just released a video and infographic about manual materials handling ergonomics. MHI is the nation’s largest material handling, logistics and supply chain association. MHI offers education, networking and solution sourcing for members, their customers and the industry as a whole through programming and events.
On the infographic, MHI notes:
Ergonomics is more than a buzzword today - it is a movement. Nationally, our demographics confirm we are aging and in deteriorating physical shape. This impacts the workplace, and good employers must think of their businesses in terms of ergonomics. EASE is the group within MHI focused solely on making work easier for people by improving the work environment.
Get the MHI MMH Ergonomics Infographic Now!
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