The Hidden Costs of a Workplace Accident in Cincinnati, Ohio

When an accident occurs, the initial compensations and payments linking directly to the people involved will be the first anyone focuses on. But did you know that the indirect or hidden costs of a work accident in Cincinnati are also involved and need to be taken care of?

Whenever a workplace accident, construction site accident, or any other accident occurs, the costs of an accident are usually divided into direct and indirect costs of an accident. Indirect costs are the less obvious consequences of the accident, which can occur over time, while direct costs are the immediate and direct consequences. The indirect costs are hidden and usually not covered by the insurance the company provides for its workers, thus called insured costs.

Costs of a Workplace Accident in Cincinnati

The department of civil and environmental engineering, University of Cincinnati, had conducted a strategic study and a systemic appraisal of already existing literature to compare the insured and uninsured (indirect) costs of an accident. They concluded that each company accident, no matter how strong the company may be, will face certain hidden consequences.

Some of the common direct costs are:

• Medical bill payments for the injured individuals,
• Paramedical, initial first aid and ambulance charges,
• Wages of the injured person/persons.

Indirect costs of a work accident in Cincinnati include:

• Injured employee productivity loss,
• The time lost for the other workers who were not injured but had to stop and help/look,
• Material and equipment damaged in the costs of an accident – to replace the broken or damaged goods,
• Disrupted schedules – due to injured employee/employees, the fill-in staff, and their own work can get all over the place resulting in additional complaints from the non-injured staff.
• Lowered employee morale – the accident may not sit well with other employees, and they may hesitate to come back to work. This will prove hectic to the company and the managers.
• Damage to the company image – any accident making the news will receive its fair share of scrutiny from the public, and the customer goodwill will be compromised.
• Cleanup – For high-scale accidents, usually the cleanup and the aftermath costs of an accident are on par with the compensation costs and are quite a hassle to deal with.
• Loss of supervision, heat, light, etc. due to the accident
• Costs associated with hiring new employees – the time and resources put in to instruct, hire, and train replacement employees.
• Prosecution fines following the accident – the legal side of the accident that the company insurance does not cover,
• Remedial costs – to redo the work or to rebuild the damaged property,
• Clerical costs – costs for the clerical staff and sub staff who work to investigate the procedure and file claims and complaints.
• Paperwork charges
• Medical costs not included in the insurance - like advanced facilities and treatments
• Cost of wages paid to the supervisors to employ them for overtime work and to handle the accident repercussions.
• Funeral costs - if the involved individuals passed away due to the accident
• Incident Investigation costs – paid to the involved personnel
• Wages lost due to overall decreased productivity of the staff and company due to that incident.

How Can Indirect Costs of an Accident Affect the Company?

Due to these many hidden costs, the ratio between the frequency of injuries that occur and the costs that are paid may vary, causing the company to have missing numbers on their revenue bills. In addition, it is quite hard to keep track of all the hidden costs and try to make justice to each, thus resulting in either injustice to the employees or additional charges to the company.

The damage to the company image is unavoidable as the involved individuals will be in a vulnerable state and may try to sue the company for injuries that were not in their hands in the first place. Studies have shown that depending on the companies’ status, the costs that companies pay for indirect costs are usually 20 to 50 times higher than the direct costs.

Insurance and Hidden Costs

As you can see, most of the indirect costs are based on human and staff suffering. No one can put an exact price on those. It is best to avoid the occurrence of workspace accidents as much as you can. To prevent more damage, the company's insurance guidelines for their employees must be crystal clear and on point. The loss due to the accidents and the costs the employees demand to be met under the insurance may blur after the loss. Hence, it is essential to have straightforward insurance policies beforehand.

To learn more about the cost of an accident in Cincinnati and how we can help, contact us today.