Relationship Analysis of Injured Workers' Average Weekly Wages and Workers' Compensation Indemnity Claims in Maine, US: 1998 to 2017.

OBJECTIVE: Explore the relationship between injured workers' average weekly wages (AWW) and their workers' compensation (WC) claims outcomes in Maine, US. METHODS: A total of 29,668 indemnity (lost-time) claims categorized into three wage-based percentile groups from a 20-year period (5-year intervals) were analyzed. WC outcomes included medical costs, number of indemnity checks, claim's duration, and claim settlements. RESULTS: Generally, claims within the lower percentile group were less likely to have high medical costs, but were more likely to have an elevated number of indemnity checks when compared to those in the middle percentile group. An inverse relationship was observed for those claims within the higher percentile group. CONCLUSIONS: Generalizations about low wage earners' claims being longer-lasting and more expensive or early return to work always reducing the medical cost of claims should be avoided.

Medical Cost of Workers' Compensation Claims Related to Patient Handling and Mobility Tasks Within Skilled Nursing Facilities, Continuing Care Retirement Communities and Assisted Living Facilities: An Exploratory Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the medical costs related to patient handling & mobility (PH&M) claims. METHODS: Closed medical only and indemnity workers' compensation claims were utilized for this exploratory study. In addition to the PH&M tasks, the claimants' gender, age, tenure, and the claim lag time were also analyzed. RESULTS: Generalized linear models indicated that variables related to tasks, claims' number of open days and age of the claimants had meaningful effects on the adjusted medical costs for medical only claims. For indemnity claims, the number of open days of claims, age and tenure had meaningful effects. Gender had meaningful effects only for indemnity claims when classifying the claims by patient handling tasks versus non-patient handling tasks. CONCLUSIONS: Results showed that factors, other than the type of injury; meaningfully influenced the adjusted medical costs of indemnity claims.

Performance of a whole-body human dust inhalation challenge exposure chamber.

BACKGROUND: Evaluation of the performance of a whole-body human dust exposure chamber is presented in this report. METHODS: The volume of the chamber is 2.13 m3 and it is operated at a flow rate of 1.0 m3/min. Makeup and exhaust air were filtered. A Wright Dust Feeder was used to generate fly ash, the testing agent. An elutriator was used to maintain particles in the respirable range. A Rupprecht and Patashnick PM-10 TEOM, a direct reading instrument, was used to monitor particle concentration. Particle size distributions were determined by a QCM cascade impactor. The evenness of dust concentrations in the chamber was determined gravimetrically. RESULTS: Dust concentrations measured at different points within the chamber were associated with variability less than 10%. Dust concentrations measured by the TEOM, in µg/m3, at 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 RPMs of the Wright Dust Feeder, were 110 ± 2.8, 173 ± 8.5, 398 ± 20 and 550 ± 17, respectively. Particle size distributions (MMD and GSD) were 1.27 µm and 2.35, 1.39 and 2.22, 1.46 and 2.08, 1.15 and 2.2, respectively. Total dust concentrations measured gravimetrically in µg/m3, were 135 ± 21, 200 ± 35, 333 ± 18 and 891 ± 27, respectively. CONCLUSION: The whole-body human exposure chamber offers several advantages and has better performance than most of the inhalation challenge systems previously described.

Performance of a human inhalation challenge exposure system. I. Gases.

The purpose of this study was to characterize and evaluate the performance of a whole-body human exposure chamber for controlled test atmospheres of gases and particulates. This article is a report on the performance of the system with gas phase agents. Results of the performance of the system with particulate phase agents will be presented in a separate report. The chamber was constructed from Plexiglas with a volume of 2.13 m(3) (75 ft(3)) and operating at a flow rate about 1.0 m(3)/min (34 cfm). Both the makeup and exhaust air were HEPA-filtered. CO(2) was used as a tracer gas and its concentration was measured using Metrosonics aq-5000 instruments. The CO(2) concentrations used in this study ranged from about 5000 to 12,000 ppm. Observed and predicted concentrations at equilibrium of test material were in agreement within 1.7%. Concentration of CO(2) was found to be even horizontally throughout the chamber, with a small initial lag of about 30 sec between the maximum concentration at the top and the bottom of the chamber. The system can thus be reliably used for inhalation challenge procedures for gases.