Risk Management Report 2008
Presented below is Clackamas County Risk Management’s Annual Report. It contains graphs and statistics spanning the five-year period of July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2008. The purpose of this report is to provide information, both programmatic and statistical, to help us understand and incorporate risk management measures into the everyday tasks we perform. Some general and unique challenges that have faced Clackamas County will be addressed as well. Knowing there is no crystal ball for forecasting the future needs of the County, we must rely on the experiences and statistics of previous years to project potential areas of future loss.
General Overview
Clackamas County has 367,040 residents living within an area of 1,879 square miles. The county is primarily rural but does include 17 cities and local governments. Clackamas County employs approximately 2,289 full-time, part-time, and temporary employees, along with many volunteers. County government consists of departments organized to provide the following services: transportation and development, sewer, public safety/law enforcement, tourism, public and governmental affairs, libraries, community health (public/mental health) and social services, taxation and assessment, as well as internal administrative services.
It is the intention of Clackamas County to preserve and protect the assets of the County from accidental loss at the most economical cost. Also, just as importantly, the County’s goal is to provide a safe, secure and healthful working environment for its employees. The County has elected to retain exposure to loss primarily through self-insurance and transfer exposure through purchased insurance only when the premium cost has been determined to be cost-efficient compared to the exposure.
The management and control of the County’s risk management program is a function of the Risk and Benefits Division, within the Department of Employee Services. A Risk Management Committee provides oversight of this function with the day to day management provided by the Risk Manager. Our philosophy is that risk management must be so much a part of County culture that it becomes a value rather than merely a priority that shifts as other priorities change. The primary areas managed through this program are: liability, workers’ compensation, vehicles and unemployment claims administration, loss control services, insurance, and contracts.
To compare our program with like entities, we calculate the cost of risk as a percentage of budget and payroll. Costs include actual claims expenditures, insurance premiums, staff salaries and benefits, materials and supplies, consultants and contractors. The slight increase in FY 05-06 is due to some fairly substantial increases in insurance premiums. The increase in the FY 07-08 budget percentage was primarily due to a reduction in the County budget. Risk-related expenses increased only slightly.
Services to the Organization
Risk Management staff provides the following services to the organization:
- Internal consulting services for departmental staff on preventing and controlling risks, including risk assessments;
- Workers’ compensation, liability, vehicle, property and unemployment claims administration;
- Marketing, purchasing, and administration of property, excess liability and workers’ compensation, and other miscellaneous insurance policies and bonds;
- Review of County contracts for insurance requirements and indemnification language;
- Employee and supervisory training on risk-related topics, including tort liability, workers’ compensation, loss control and employee safety;
- Coordination of modified duty assignments and physical rehabilitation programs for injured workers;
- Loss control consultative services for employee safety and environmental issues;
- Ergonomic consultations.
Executive Summary
It is heartening to see that our claims trends are down in both numbers and cost, as shown in the Summary of All Claims Filed and Summary of Overall Costs graphs. As our number of claims decreases, so, eventually, does the cost. It appears the costs are beginning to match the decreasing number of claims. This is very encouraging.
Claims data reflects that from FY 06-07 to FY 07-08 costs decreased by the following:
- Liability by 66%. (Bear in mind that liability claims can take considerable time to resolve, but this very large reduction bodes well for the future because the number of claims decreased by almost 28%).
- Workers’ Compensation by 46%.
- Vehicle by 48%.
Costs can be controlled. These reductions prove it. Constant attention to the day to day commitment of making proactive loss control an organizational value will help continue this trend.
The OSHA Incidence Rate graph shows how we are doing on preventing injuries. If the number of OSHA incidents (greater than first aid) is declining or low, we are being successful in preventing costs before they can begin.
Vehicle accidents have decreased steadily over the past 5 years—by almost 50%. This is partly due to driving record checks, defensive driver training, and specific post-accident follow-up.
