Fact Sheet: Trends in Healthcare lost time, injury recovery, workplace premiums and total work days lost

There are numbers of statistics and trends that help us better understand how the pandemic has impacted people working in healthcare, employers and the overall system. We looked the trends from 2018 to 2022. We also compared healthcare to other sectors and found when it comes to lost time claims – up 33%, total work days lost – up 76%, injury recovery rates – up 21 to 124% and assessable payroll – up 124%, healthcare is far above the provincial average.

This information is available through WorkSafeBC’s public tableau. The data we’ve pulled comes from WorkSafeBC’s subsector category ‘healthcare and social services’ and is not healthcare only data.

Lost time claims

Lost time (or time-loss) is the number of claims where the injuries occurred in a given year and were accepted for short-term disability, long term disability, or survivor benefits in that year or in the first three months of the following year.

From 2018 to 2022 the number of lost time claims in the healthcare and social services sector increased from 8,993 in to 11,958. That’s a 33% increase in number of claims.

In comparison, the number of lost time claims in all industries increased by 4% over that same time period.

Total work days lost

Total work days lost is the total number of short-term disability work days paid in the year for all injuries, excluding days off for rehabilitation.

From 2018 to 2022 the number of total work days lost in the healthcare and social services sector increased from 426,930 to 749,241. That’s a 76% increase.

In comparison, the total work days lost in all sectors increased by 20%, over the same period of time.

Injury Recovery

From 2018 to 2022 workers in healthcare and social services who returned to work following an injury within four weeks increased by 21%, within 26 weeks increased by 27%, and after more than 26 weeks increased by 124%.

In comparison, workers in all sectors who returned to work following an injury in four weeks decreased by 4%, within 26 weeks by less than 1% and after 26 weeks by 32%.

Insurance Trends and Statistics

From 2019 to 2022 the amount healthcare and social services sector employers paid WorkSafeBC increased by 124% (up more than $200 million) from $177 million to $397 million. During the same period, the healthcare payroll (the number of additional employees hired, or wages adjusted) increased by only 36%.

In comparison, the assessment for all B.C. employers increased by 27% and the total assessable payroll increased by 29%, during the same period.

Links
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/worksafebc/viz/Provincialoverview/Didyouknow

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/worksafebc/viz/ProvincialOverviewYeartodate/CUprofile?publish=yes