Quality in prevention, Sub-project 8, "Investigation"

Status:

completed 02/2007

Aims:

In the "Quality in prevention" research project, the accident insurance institutions are studying the effectiveness and efficiency of their prevention services, with the objective of creating principles by which their prevention activity may be continually improved. The prevention services of the accident insurance institutions conduct investigations in the event of accidents and reported cases of suspected occupational disease, and also during sectoral studies and risk assessments. The objective of the "investigation" part of the project is to create a basis for a methodology for use throughout the accident insurance institutions, by which the quality of this service can be measured and optimized with consideration for the requirements of the internal and external customers.

Activities/Methods:

In the "investigation" part of the "Quality in prevention" project, process analyses were conducted at a number of BGs with the objective of defining a standard investigation process which is as generic as possible and ideally applicable to all BGs, together with suitable metrics for measurement of the quality of the process. The process should however offer sufficient scope for dedicated solutions and implementations in the individual BGs. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with staff in the prevention services of a number of BGs.

Results:

The prevention service of investigation is not a single service, but a class of prevention services. It comprises the following four processes: investigation of cases of occupational disease; investigation of accident cases; risk assessment/investigation for specific purposes; and systemization of the results of investigations for prevention activity. For each process in the "investigation" class, internal quality criteria and metrics can be defined which are already being recorded in the BGs or which are derived from the processes and can be obtained with reasonable effort. In addition, particular examples of good practice for quality assurance and enhancement can be identified in each case.

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