Designing national systems to support the analysis and prevention of occupational fatal injuries: Evidence from Italy

Abstract

Analysing injury causes is an essential activity for both companies as well as national and local authorities involved in safety at workplace. For a single company, benefits mainly consist of pointing out root causes of an occurred injury aiming to prevent its replication. At the national level, injury analysis enables a stronger evaluation of actual critical risk factors that usually lead to accidents at similar workplaces. If data are gathered from different companies, the analysis of critical risk factors could support more effective and focused preventative activities in Occupational Safety and Health surveillance. The proposed work aims to describe and critically analyse a good practice developed under the current Italian national surveillance system to control and prevent occupational fatal injuries based on a structured system for collecting and analysing data about occurred injuries and then, developing proactive activities to support prevention at workplace. A system called Infor.Mo has been developed by a project between national and local institutions. The Infor.Mo system involves methodological and operational tools as it includes a model for analysing critical factors that have contributed to injury development, and a software-based tool to collect and disseminate information extracted by analysed data. The methodological model is based on a multi-factor analysis of risk factors aiming to determine the actual dynamic of an injury and its root causes. A final critical discussion about positive results and current challenges, derived by practical experience of a multi-year application of the proposed system, is also proposed.