MORA Meeting Minutes
April 13, 2011: 10:00 AM
Minutes:
MORA MINUTES April 13, 2011
Present: Leslie Walleigh, Peter Doran, Ivan Most (via telephone), Mike Roland, Kathleen Schulz, Amy Wagner, and Terry Hathaway
Guests: Debbie Reitchel, Customer Service Unit, Bureau of Labor Standards, Maine Department of Labor; Robert Ross, Maine-Harvard Prevention Research Center; and Tony Nguyen, Healthy Communities of the Capital Area
Call to Order. Leslie Walleigh called the meeting to order at 10:18 a.m.
Introductions. As there were guests, introductions were made.
March 16, 2011 Minutes. Postponed to the May 11th meeting as Desi-Rae was not present to clarify a statement under “announcements”.
Announcements. Terry announced that she has copies of the Annual Report of the Status of the Maine Workers’ Compensation System”. It can also be found on the Maine Workers’ Compensation website. There is also a link under the Maine Department of Labor website to Workers’ Compensation’s website.
Leslie announced that Workers’ Memorial Day is April 28th. An observance dinner is being held on Friday, April 29, 2011 at the Franco American Heritage Center in Lewiston. A flyer was in today’s handout.
Leslie also announced that there was a bill to modify the Occupational Disease Reporting Law. It was voted out of Committee as “ought to pass”. This revision would allow SafetyWorks to be contacted without written permission.
Kathy announced that as the 100 Workers’ Compensation cases is done every three year, it is due out this year, but is still in draft form. It will be presented officially in September at the Compensation Summit. Kathy is willing to do a presentation to MORA in June.
NORA Manufacturing Sector Conference – Ivan Most. . A handout, 2011 NORA Manufacturing Sector Conference: Partnerships to Improve Occupational Safety and Health, will be held September 7-8, 2011, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ivan explained that there is a NORA Conference in July, but that it is for all sectors. The purpose of the NORA Manufacturing Sector Conference is to work on strategic goals. The speakers on September 7th include: John Howard, Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health; Michael Wright, Director of Health, Safety and Environment, United Steelworkers; Michael Simpson, Director of Operations, National Institute of Standards and Technology. The major focus of the conference is on partnership. NIOSH will not be able to provide funding unless they bring in private partners.
In the afternoon, Thomas LeBlond, Pratt & Whitney, will be heading one of the workshop sessions on Partnerships.
On September 8th, there will be a panel discussion on “the Future of Safety and Health in an Evolving Workplace.
Leslie inquired about attendees receiving continuing education credits for medical education. Ivan will double check and get back to her. Leslie also inquired about the letter to Greg Lotz. Ivan will check with Dr. Lotz.
Preventing Healthcare Worker Injuries (where do we go from here?). This is a follow-up to Kirk’s presentation at the March meeting. Ivan noted that he asked his class about musculo-skeletal injuries and eight responded they were interested.
Leslie noted that Karen Michaud and Megan Stiles, Maine Healthcare Association, were supposed to be at last month’s meeting. MORA needs to pull together on where we go from here. Karen and Megan will be available for next month’s meeting.
Leslie is looking for more feedback, activities, research, etc.
Mike reminded members of Garrett Oswald’s presentation on the planning grant. He suggested that MORA do a presentation for the Health Workforce Forum, which will be meeting within the next several months. Kirk Duplessis, Dave Wacker, and Leslie Walleigh could represent MORA.
Leslie stated that there will be a work session of L.D. 466, “An Act To Require Hospitals To Adopt Employee Illness and Injury Prevention Programs and To Provide Lift Teams and To Require Reduced Workers' Compensation Insurance Rates for those Hospitals". Mike added that Dave Wacker said that most hospitals have lifting teams. Mike suggested that Leslie talk to Dave Wacker.
There will be discussion at MORA’s May meeting regarding the educational proponents for preventing injuries. MORA can be beneficial in filling knowledge gaps. Bob Ross suggested a conference as a platform to raise public awareness through the newspapers and media. Further discussion included public activity around health care by getting partners, such as the Maine Hospital Association, Maine Health Access Foundation, and Pilgrim Partners.
Amy added that the Maine Health and Safety Conference will be held at the end of September, and that they are seeking requests for proposals. She suggested MORA partner with the Safety and Health Council of Northern New England. Leslie will follow-up and report back at the next MORA meeting. Leslie added that Dave Wacker, Steve Greeley, Karen Michaud, and Megan Stiles should attend the next MORA meeting.
Peter added that MORA needs to look at and continue being consistent in addressing the needs of the occupational safety and health agenda in both the public and private sectors. Peter added that MORA was created as the result of a conference. He does not think that MORA could do a conference at this time. Leslie added that MORA had successful conferences. The first one was held with NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health) funding. Ivan added that MORA also had partnered with the University of New England (UNE) for its conferences. He suggests that it would be worth having a conversation with UNE as they have the ability to apply for grants. Peter stated that MORA had two successful conferences at UNE in the past when UNE had not developed their educational programs for allied health and medicine as they have now. Ivan and Bob will meet with UNE to “scout it out”. They will provide an update at the next MORA meeting.
Results of BRFSS Workers’ Compensation Module – Leslie Walleigh. Leslie provided a brief presentation of the results from ten state of the BRFSS (Behavior Risk Factors Surveillance System) workers’ compensation module from 2007 which were published in MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly). Maine performed a similar module in its 2008 BRFSS survey. Those results were also presented. Both modules looked at injury rates and source of payment for work related injuries occurring in the prior year. Leslie will distribute the powerpoint after the epidemiologist calculates the requested confidence intervals for the Maine results.
Next Meeting – Wednesday, May 11, 2011. The next meeting will be held Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 10:00 a.m., in Frances Perkins Conference Room A, Maine Department of Labor, Central Maine Commerce Center, 45 Commerce Drive, Augusta.
Adjournment. Chair Leslie Walleigh adjourned the meeting at 11:44 a.m.
