Hinze, J and Appelgate, L L (1991) Costs of construction injuries. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 117(3), pp. 537-550. ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
A study is conducted to obtain accurate quantification of all costs associated with construction-worker injuries. More than five hundred injuries are examined on which cost information was obtained on the indirect costs. Indirect costs are defined to include those costs attributed to loss of productivity of the injured worker, loss of productivity of the crew, transportation costs to the nearest medical-treatment facilities, time expended to complete various forms related to the injury, and an assortment of other costs not regarded as direct costs. Direct costs are defined as those costs covered by worker’s compensation insurance. Results show that the ratio of indirect to direct costs for medical-case injuries is 4.2 and for restricted activity or lost-workday injuries it is 20.3. These ratios are extremely variable with injury severity being a primary influence on their magnitude. The study shows why safety experts have difficulty in agreeing on one reliable ratio. The principal conclusion is that the indirect costs of injuries are considerable as evidenced in this research study.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Index terms: | direct cost, cost information, compensation, quantification, indirect cost, productivity, insurance, injury |
| Subjects: | accounting and finance, management, economics, dispute resolution, health conditions and diseases, economic analysis, cost management, measurement and scaling |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Cost Management, Health and Safety, Legal Issues, Procurement, Business Strategy |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 CA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here