McLeod Receives 2013 South Carolina Safety Award

McLEOD DILLION 18 APRIL 2014

McLeod Health is pleased to announce that seven teams within the McLeod Health organization have been awarded the 2013 South Carolina Safety Award. These teams include: McLeod Regional Medical Center, McLeod Darlington, McLeod Dillon, McLeod Health & Fitness Center, McLeod Loris, McLeod Seacoast and McLeod Physician Associates.

The Safety, Health and Security Committee of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce honors those South Carolina businesses that have excellent safety records with the South Carolina Safety Award. This award is designed to recognize companies and their employees who have had a commendable Lost Workday Case Rate during the 2013 calendar year. The Lost Workday Case Rate is the number of employee hours worked at a facility divided by the number of cases that represented work days missed.

There were 163 companies that applied for this designation and 531 locations that qualified. McLeod was one of two hospitals to receive this award with the other medical facility being located from upstate South Carolina.

Instrumental in this achievement for McLeod Health was the McLeod Safety Champion Program. Octavia Williams-Blake, Associate Vice President of McLeod Employee and Occupational Health commented, "This program, more than anything, has contributed to our facilities receiving the 2013 Safety Award."

Led by Kim McCracken, RN, Director of McLeod Occupational Health, and Kelly Croshaw, McLeod Occupational Health Coordinator, the Safety Champion Program is an employee safety-oriented program designed to reinforce safe behavior in the workplace. One employee from each McLeod department is chosen to serve as Safety Champion. This person is responsible for monitoring employee safety within their departments during monthly rounds.

"Safety Champions are advocates, educators, and cheerleaders for employee safety," said McCracken. "This program has increased employee awareness of appropriate safety behaviors and has encouraged employees to be more diligent about the safety of their fellow employees."

Debbie Locklair, Administrator at McLeod Medical Center Dillon, praised the efforts of team approach. "McLeod Health places quality and safety at the center of its work," said Locklair. "This is achieved as a result of the each employee being mindful and purposeful. The safety champions do an excellent job of keeping safety in the forefront of our day to day work."

For more information on the South Carolina Safety Award, please visit the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce website at www.scchamber.net.