Editor's Note: See the winnerprofiles for American Infrastructure and Aramark Corp. (Miama-Dade County Public Schools to be featuredon PC360 on Monday, Aug. 12).

Every year, National Underwriter's Excellence in Workers'Compensation Risk Management Award honors organizations withoutstanding loss control, safety and return-to-work programs. Theyare the leaders in this field, all featuring success storiesshowing proven results.

This year's winners are American Infrastructure Inc.; AramarkCorp.; and Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The three winners willbe honored on Aug. 19 during the 68th annual Workers'Compensation Educational Conference (WCEC), set for Aug. 18-21at the Orlando World Center Marriott.

The award is sponsored by the National Council on CompensationInsurance (NCCI).

During the conference on Aug. 19, NU Executive Managing EditorShawn Moynihan will lead a roundtable from 1-3 p.m. featuring therisk managers representing all three winners, during which theywill share the secrets of their award-winning programs.

Presented by the Workers' Compensation Institute, the WCEC isthe largest gathering of its kind in the nation andoffers discipline-specific programs and break-out sessionsfrom hundreds of national speakers, as well as CEUopportunities.

With more than 1,800 employees in six states, AmericanInfrastructure operates in the heavy civil construction industryand boasts $500 million in companywide revenue. Bridges, roads,treatment plants and pipelines span the spectrum of its projects,most of them major and each posing unique challenges and potentialsafety hazards.

Fostering a culture of safety—exemplified by AI's “Home SafeTonight” initiative—isn't fueled by a desire to simply comply withsafety regulations and hopefully contain Workers' Comp costs in theprocess: It's woven into the very fabric of the company. It's aphilosophy that starts at the top and filters down to the boots onthe ground.

“It is inconceivable for any of us to believe that a commitmentto any other standard of operation is acceptable,” says RiskManager Schwartz. AI's intolerance for incidents or injuries and abasic caring for every employee, he adds, “bleeds through ineverything we do.”

The proof is in the results: A reduction in the injury rate byover 50 percent in just four years, and a drastic reduction inWorkers' Comp loss rate per $100 of payroll in the past sixyears.

ARAMARK Corp. has built its business on providing professionalservices, including facilities management, food preparation, anduniform and career apparel. Once challenged by a Workers' Compincident rate of nearly 12, taking employees off the job andaffecting the service they could provide, the company has sincebrought laser focus to its efforts in managing its WC costs.

Following a corporate-wide initiative to address the issue in2004, a senior-level task force asked ARAMARK's risk managementfunction to become the center of excellence for risk control andclaims management. Nine years later, the company has undergone acultural transformation that has improved worker safety, halved theincident rate and slashed claims costs. ARAMARK's initiativecombined a new safety focus, involving both employees and partners,and new claims processes, including both workflow andtechnology.

“It wasn't just that our incident rate was extremely high, itwas the realization that each of those incidents represented aninjured co-worker,” says Carla Wynn, Associate Vice President,Strategic Claims Management. “We committed to making sure thatfirst and foremost our employees were safe.”

Miami-Dade County is the fourth-largest school district in theU.S., comprised of 392 schools and more than 50,000 full- andpart-time employees. In addition to educators, the district employsfood-service workers, janitors, painters and carpenters, busdrivers and mechanics, its own police force and medicalprofessionals.

The school district, whose risks are managed by former RIMSPresident Scott Clark, has seen great success through its Workers'Education Rehabilitation and Compensation (WERC) program.Additionally, Clark and his team launched several key initiativesto manage workplace safety, setting a course to re-engagephysicians to take ownership of the treatment of injured workerswhile charging the Workers' Comp adjuster with the responsibilityfor all aspects of the injured worker's file.

Another major issue Clark has tackled in trying to contain WCcosts is dealing with physicians' expenses for prepackagedpharmaceuticals, an area in which it has made great strides. Thedistrict and its TPA pushed for a bill that went into effect lastJuly that has led to $3 million in documented savings of cappingthe way the district reimburses for prescriptions.

Feature profiles on all three winners of the Excellence inWorkers' Compensation Risk Management Award will appear in NU'sAugust issue, and here on PC360 starting next Monday.

For more information on attending the Workers' Comp EducationalConference in Orlando, click here.