Work-related injuries and illnesses continue to occur at unacceptably high rates. Interestingly, the incidence is highest among small employers whose survival is most threatened by the high cost of work-related injuries and workers' compensation. The Abacus Management Group Inc. has developed a prototype Comprehensive Occupational Safety Training Program (COST) and pilot tested it with 50 small employers from a wide range of industries. COST is a behaviorally-based safety training program designed specifically for small employers. The SBIR Phase I analyses indicate that COST is effective in reducing work-related injuries and illnesses and their associated costs. The investigators refined the prototype materials including specifically the manual, forms, video and CD ROM. Phase II proposes to conduct a randomized, controlled trial of COST and develop models to predict companies' response to interventions to control the frequency of work-related injuries. The goal is to make available to small employers a commercially viable and tested behavioral-based training program that can have an immediate and significant impact on work-related injuries/illnesses and their associated costs.
