How to Deal with a Workplace Accident Efficiently

No matter how well prepared you and your business are, workplace accidents can occur with no notice.

How prepared is your workplace for the unforeseen accident? The owner of the company is responsible for and has the ultimate liability in a workplace accident. If this scares you, it should, but there are steps you can take to ready your team and places of work to minimize bad outcomes from accidents.

Let’s look at your first responder action when a person is injured in a workplace accident.

Use your first aid training and if you haven’t been through the training, then reach out to someone in your vicinity which has the training. Why do you need to respond as a first aider? Well, there is a step process to minimize danger, get medical assistance and in some situations save lives or prevent further deterioration of injured persons.

DR(S)ABC

A first aider knows the acronym DR(S)ABC is vital in the event of an accident.

• D = Danger. Assess the accident. Is there any imminent danger? If so, you don’t go in but call the emergency services (police, fire, ambulance – paramedics)
• R = Response. If you can get to the injured – first assess their response. Call out and get them to respond. If there is no response…
• S = Seek help. Call the emergency services.
• A = Airways. Make sure nothing is constricting their airways.
• B = Breathing. Check if the injured is breathing – if they are awake and respond, then they are breathing. If not, then you need to find out if they are breathing by listening for breathing noise, watching their chest rise and fall, or feel the breath on your hand.
• C = CPR. Yes, you may need to do CPR to keep the person alive while waiting for the paramedics to arrive.

Summary of Action

The most obvious thing to do after a workplace accident is to ensure that everyone receives the assistance they need straight away.

Do whatever you can to help out yourself, but remember to stay on the safe side of things.

Don’t attempt to do anything that might put someone else at unnecessary risk. Be prepared before an accident with first aid training and ensure that your employees are also up to speed with workplace safety and first aid.

Have Some Important Contacts Handy

It’s also a good idea to have some contacts readily available, so you can assist your employees as best as you can. For example, if your business is in Minnesota, you’ll want your employees with legal experts like the Minnesota’s worker’s compensation law experts at Mottaz & Sisk .

Of course, due to the delicate nature of a situation like this, you should not be surprised if people prefer to go with their own legal representation.

Stay in Touch with Affected Employees

Last but not least, remember to stay in contact with everyone who has been affected by the event. There are exceptions to this – you might be prevented from contacting someone if there is a perceived conflict of interest during an ongoing lawsuit, for example.

However, reach out to your employees and provide them with as much assistance as they need during this time.

Remember that a workplace accident is not only difficult for you, it also brings a lot of stress to those immediately affected by it.

If you do everything right, an incident like this can actually solidify your employees’ trust in you and your business for putting their safety first.

So is your workplace an accident waiting to happen? Get a workplace safety assessment and carry out all recommendations to ensure the fatal accident will never happen on your watch. Ready for some more learning on how to be a great leader? See this article.