Safety
Employee health and safety are among Bristol-Myers Squibb's highest priorities. Our long-term vision is to eliminate work-related injuries and illnesses as much as possible.
We strive to maintain performance in the top 25 percent of similar companies.
Injuries and Illness
Our recordable work-related illnesses and injury case rate has decreased 43 percent and our lost workday case rate has decreased 9 percent since the 2000 baseline for this goal. For the period 2008 to 2009, our recordable case rate has decreased by 1 percent and our lost workday case rate has increased by 15 percent. Bristol-Myers Squibb's performance is in the top 25 percent for recordable case rate and the top 50 percent for lost workday case rate among similar companies, based on most recently available industry data (2008).
We have developed numerous health and safety programs addressing ergonomics, safety awareness, case management and other safety issues.
Fatalities
We had one fatality in 2007, due to a motor vehicle accident in China. The employee was a distribution supervisor with our Sales and Marketing department in Xinjiang and was on a business trip. We had one death in 2008, due to a plane crash in Venezuela. The employee was a District Manager based in Venezuela, and was on a business trip. There was one in 2009. An R&D clinical monitor died in a motor vehicle accident in Mexico.
Programs
Our manufacturing, research and development, and distribution facilities, have safety committees in place. The company’s safety teams share best practices and work to improve our safety performance.
The number of automatic external defibrillators available at our sites continues to grow.
June is safety month at Bristol-Myers Squibb, a time to increase employee awareness of the importance of adopting and maintaining safe and healthy behaviors at work and home. Employees and family members participate in a range of activities.
The 5 Stars Program was designed to provide a systematic approach for the evaluation and recognition of the safety performance of all departments within Bristol-Myers Squibb Humacao. This Program was implemented in 2003, and it uses the same concept of the hotel industry, in which Stars are assigned according to the performance of the different safety elements applicable to the operation of each department. By meeting the criteria of the 5 different elements on each safety program, the employees of the department and the department itself are recognized on an annual basis according to the results obtained in an annual audit conducted by the Environment, Health and Safety Department (by means of checklists developed for each safety program). Hence, departments are rated with Stars to evidence their safety performance on regulatory compliance and accident prevention.
Data Collection
Bristol-Myers Squibb uses common definitions, consistent with criteria established by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for recording occupational accidents and illnesses worldwide.
The data presented here represents our facilities and field sales operations throughout the world from 2007 through 2009. Lost workday case rates include all incidents that involve time away from work. Recordable cases include all incidents of injury or illness that require more than first aid.