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Cowlitz County risk staff report slight improvement in workers’ compensation claims but urge more safety metrics
Summary
Risk staff reported 10 open workers’ compensation claims and an average claim cost of about $7,000. They recommended adopting metrics including total recordable incident rate and a target to reduce average days claims remain open by 5%.
Cowlitz County risk staff presented a quarterly workers’ compensation update that showed some improvement in new claims while urging the use of standardized safety metrics.
Scott (identified in the meeting as a risk analyst) and other staff told commissioners the county began the year with 12 open workers’ compensation claims, opened four new claims and closed six during the quarter, leaving 10 open claims. Staff broke those open claims down by type: six incurred time loss (two employees fully off work and four on modified duties) and four were medical‑only cases; one medical‑only claim was in appeal and being handled with legal support. “Our average claim cost right now is around $7,000,” staff said.
Risk staff recommended adopting industry metrics to measure safety performance. They presented the total recordable incident frequency (a standard used by Washington Department of Labor & Industries) and noted Cowlitz County’s 2024 frequency was about 5.6 cases per 100 full‑time equivalent workers compared with a Washington local‑government average of 5.3 and a national average of 4.3. For the first quarter of 2025, staff calculated a 2.8 frequency (noting quarter-to-quarter comparisons are less standardized than annual measures).
Staff proposed a specific operational goal to shorten claim duration: the county ended last year with an average of 124 days that claims remained open; staff recommended targeting a 5% reduction in average days open by year end, citing the correlation between timely claim closure and lower paid costs.
Ending
Risk staff asked departments to consider more consistent safety metrics and to work with risk staff to close claims sooner to reduce costs.
