Memo

To: H&W Trustees; Health & Safety Advisory Committee members
From: Kathy Black, Health & Safety Director
Date: January 15, 2002

Re: Report on Quarterly Meeting with Risk Management, Dec, 19, 2001

In Attendance: For Risk Management - Sam Nicholson, Susan Robinson, Prudence Rembert, Barry Scott
For the Union - Rita Urwitz, Jerry Roseman, Kathy Black

The first item on the agenda was a discussion of the status of the revised IOD reporting form. Barry Scott reported that the form should be completed by late January and circulated for review through the month of February. The Union will receive a copy. When the review is completed, production aspects will be worked on. It is anticipated that it will be a major effort to get the form produced and distributed. Barry hopes to get some help with the final design of the form in terms of flow, accessability and appearance. The content is pretty much set now, with only a few changes since the last draft we looked at many months ago. The main change is that the causal factor section will be linked to corrective factors.

The Employee Responsibilities under the Employee Disability Program notice has now been distributed to 95% of departments. I have gotten inquiries from a few stewards about the notice. It is only in a poster format now, though it may still be distributed in paycheck envelopes at some point. A Department Safety Officers’ Meeting was held last month where the notice was given out and discussed.

Prudence Rembert advised us that District Council 33 had produced a "laughable" notice to their employees about the IOD system, which she promised to send to me.

Major changes in the IOD Provider Network are now underway. Patients who have been treated at Elkins Park Hospital are now being transferred to Jeans Hospital, and Elkins Park is being eliminated from the network. There have been some complaints about treatment at Elkins Park, but this decision was made mainly to

H&W Trustees;H&S Advisory -2- January 15, 2002

save money. There were also complaints from employees that they were being treated at a facility outside the City limits even though they are not permitted to live outside the City and hold their jobs.

Likewise, MCP will no longer be a treating facility in the network. Patients who are still receiving care there are being transferred to NovaCare at Roxborough Hospital. This means Dr. Marrazini, about whom many complaints have been filed, is now out of the picture.

At the meeting we were told that effective February 4, 2002, some kind of change would be coming at Hahnemann, which would include an end to Dr. Foster’s treatment of our members. Either a new site would be chosen to replace Hahnemann, or another company would come in to run the employee clinic.

(Since the meeting, I have received word that Temple University will replace Hahnemann as the central facility for treatment of our members when they are injured on duty. Bob McAllister reported on this development at the last Trustees meeting, as I was home sick with the flu.)

Patients are receiving written notices about these changes and being given information about who to contact for appointments and information. A survey will go to patients two months after the change to assess their satisfaction with the new providers and facilities.

At this point, CompServices, Inc. remains the administrator of the system. However, that relationship is being reviewed and could change in the coming months as well.

Certification and experience in Occupational Medicine will be criteria for addition of new providers to the network from now on. At least one doctor at NovaCare at Roxborough Hospital is certified in Occupational Medicine. Risk Management agreed to send the union background information on any new doctors who join the network.

Several issues have come up in Department Health and Safety Committee meetings recently which the Union felt should be discussed with Risk Management. Licenses & Inspections has decided to purchase three defibrillators, after a presentation was made to the Department committee at its last meeting. Defibrillators have already been installed at the Criminal Justice Center, the Water Department and the Airport, and DHS is considering purchasing some as well. Risk Management would like to be involved in these decisions and choices and will contact L&I.

H&W Trustees; H&S Advisory -3- January 15, 2002

The Union inquired about ergonomic training at the Central Library. Although new furniture and equipment has been purchased, and a private company was hired to do assessments a couple of years ago, employees have still not been given training in how to properly adjust furniture and equipment. The Union was refused access to employees when we offered to provide free training several years ago. Helen Miller informed us, in writing, that the Library would arrange for training. It still hasn’t happened and people are being injured and are working in very uncomfortable postures. A couple of offices have had me come in and provide training, but most of the staff has been left out. Risk Management replied that Dennis Taylor, the Library Safety Officer, has been out on extended sick leave and that has held up coordination of the training. They agreed to look into this.

We discussed recent anthrax scares and how they were responded to by the City. Rapid Assessment Teams were sent out when suspicious substances were reported. The Managing Director’s office oversaw this operation. Teams were made up of employees from several departments. Risk Management drafted policies to deal with suspicious mail and other eventualities and submitted them to DOH for review. DOH never responded, and therefore the policies were not adopted.

Only a few suspicious reports came from City employees. In all cases, the FBI made the call on whether testing was to be done. No mail received by City employees was determined by the FBI to require testing. By the time we met in December, very few new calls were coming in and all had been responded to.

The next Safety Officer’s Meeting will be held sometime in February. The meeting will include a briefing on the new facilities and changes in the provider network. Risk Management agreed to begin discussing with them the adoption of a city-wide light duty policy. They are in full agreement that something is needed. They talked about the need for some sort of job bank, and understood that pay issues for non-IOD cases would need to be negotiated. The Union renewed its request to be included in a meeting with Safety Officers at some point. It is not likely to be this next meeting, but Risk Management is still agreeable to arranging this in the future.

That concluded the agenda for this meeting. Barry Scott was then joined by Kendall Banks and Mike Rudman of his staff for a discussion of outstanding health and safety projects, which is described in a separate report.