Costs of Occupational Injury and Illness Within the Health Services Sector

Details

• Personal Author:
  Leigh JP ; Miller TR ; Waehrer G
• Description:
  Knowledge of costs is essential to allocate medical resources efficiently. The authors' goal was to estimate and compare costs across occupations, industries, gender, race, and types of nonfatal injuries and illnesses. This is an incidence study of nationwide data, 1993. Nonfatal incidence data were drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Annual Survey. Medical costs were from the Detailed Claims Information data set. Productivity (wage) costs were calculated using the Current Population Survey. Pain and suffering costs were estimated from data on jury verdicts. Injuries and illnesses to nursing aides and orderlies cost 2,200 million dollars; costs were 900 million dollars for registered nurses and 40 million dollars for licensed practical nurses. The ranking of health services industries in terms of costs was: hospitals (52 percent of all costs), nursing care facilities (38 percent), home care services (6 percent), physicians' offices (4 percent), and laboratories (<1 percent). Types of injuries (sprains, strains, fractures) were similar across occupations and industries, but types of illness (carpal tunnel syndrome, respiratory diseases) varied. The most costly injured body parts were: back, shoulder, knee, wrist, and neck. Injuries and illnesses comprised roughly 90 percent and 10 percent, respectively, of total costs. The hospital industry was the third most expensive of 313 U.S. industries. Costs of occupational injury and illness in the health services industry were high and varied across occupation, industry, disease, race, and gender. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Delivery Of Health Care Demography Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Musculoskeletal Diseases Musculoskeletal System Occupational Diseases Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Race Factors Safety Sex Characteristics

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• Keywords:
  Back-injuries Demographic-characteristics Diseases Health-care-facilities Health-care-personnel Health-services Injuries Knee-injuries Medical-care Medical-personnel Neck-injuries Nurses Nursing Occupational-diseases Occupational-hazards Occupational-health Racial-factors Sex-factors

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• ISSN:
  0020-7314
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Maryland ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  343-359
• Volume:
  35
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20029019
• Citation:
  Int J Health Serv 2005 Apr; 35(2):343-359
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• Performing Organization:
  Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Calverton, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20000601
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Health Services
• End Date:
  20040531
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a3e4027016517b4f53f9ebbf4a980078b7a794cddf2ce1ac9201c2ccfdd743437e2d701e9be4dae1210819bbe73250e58109f9686fc1058a8a199c1ff85e9424
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/190095/cdc_190095_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 507.38 KB ]