QdP Management Organization Coordination

Status:

completed 11/2009

Aims:

The BGs offer a range of prevention services for in-plant prevention activity. The basis for these services are the statutes of German Social Codes I and VII and the German Safety at Work Act (ASiG). The objective and anticipated benefits of these services is to retain, protect, promote, and where applicable restore the health, quality of life, mobility and performance of employees. A distinction must be drawn between direct OS&H prevention activity, which is conducted primarily by companies, and indirect prevention activity, which is conducted in the first instance by the BGs. "Indirect" refers to the fact that the BGs chiefly support and influence the prevention activity conducted by companies themselves. The BGs define the framework for such activity. The objective is to assure health and safety at work and to reduce the current financial expenditure, in particular for treatment for occupational diseases and accidents and for subsequent rehabilitation measures and pensions. The requirements concerning prevention place an obligation upon all parties involved, including the accident insurance institutions, to engage in prevention activity in accordance with the best available technology and to the highest possible quality standard, i.e. with the closest possible correspondence between objectives and results.

In order to reinforce the BGs' positions, and to maintain the BGs' prevention services in the face of changing conditions, analysis, evaluation, and where applicable improvements in effectiveness and efficiency are required in order to ensure that the prevention services of the BGs remain of a high standard.

The project entitled "Quality in prevention - effectiveness and efficiency of the prevention services of the BGs" has a series of objectives. These are:

• development of a methodological concept for systematic presentation of comparable quality characteristics in prevention which is flexible and can be adapted to the specific requirements of the individual BGs (with relevance to individual sectors and activities);
• identification and review of indices (variables) for quality measurement;
• recording of the status of quality, quality assurance and efficiency in prevention, with a focus upon the BG prevention services, in consideration of internal and external characteristics, i.e. from the perspective of the individual BGs and the companies respectively;
• evaluation of the prevention services with regard to their efficacy in terms of support/control of the in-plant prevention activity;
• definition of recommendations for improvements in quality within prevention;
• presentation of the success of preventive measures; presentation of benefits for customers (employers and insured individuals).

Activities/Methods:

Attainment of the aims requires stocktaking of the BGs' prevention services (consultation, investigation, occupational medical and technical safety support, monitoring, training, information material, accident prevention regulations, certificates, R&D results, publicity and communication, new and innovative prevention products).

The programme for the project and for each prevention service comprises the following steps:

1. Specification of requirements (objectives) for the prevention services (statutory provisions, decisions taken by the autonomous administration of the BGs, requirements of individual companies, collective requirements of the body of companies and insured individuals assigned to a particular sector)
2. Identification of the practice (current status) of implementation of prevention services (measurement of efficacy)
3. Comparison of the objectives and current status, with the aim of enhancing the efficacy of the prevention services.

A research plan was drawn up for the overall "Quality in Prevention" project which was suitable for division into 14 sub-projects corresponding to the planned activities. The sub-projects are to be conducted in parallel and with close co-operation between sub-project leaders. The sub-projects may be classified as generic sub-projects and as subordinate sub-projects geared to specific prevention services.

Results:

The research project "Quality in Prevention (QdP)" could be concluded in 2009 successfully.

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