Faculty & Staff

Preventing Injury

Our goal at EHS is to prevent an on-the-job injury or illness from happening. Achieving this goal not only avoids injury and illness but simply helps people feel better while working and at the end of the day.

EHS offers the University community a wide range of services and information to help prevent loss and injury.

Use the navigation bar on the left or pick a category button below for more information on specific programs.

Communication of Safety Concerns

An important part of EHS efforts to prevent work-related injury and illness is our awareness of unsafe situations, near miss incidents, and minor injuries which don’t require workers’ compensation involvement. Your help is needed in this effort. Please be aware of the following.

Deans, Chairs, Directors, & other Supervisory Personnel

EHS understands that having a group of well trained quality employees is essential both for accomplishing the University’s mission and for reaching the goals you set in each of your areas. The cost of workers’ compensation claims is not limited to the premium paid to L&I. Losing an employee, even temporarily, to injury or illness can severely impact your operations. Productivity and morale can be affected and the costs of finding and training a replacement can be a drain on your resources.

EHS has many tools to support you in efforts to keep your employees safe and healthy at work. Please review the Preventing Injury section at the top of this page. For a quick list of what can be done both before and after a work-related injury or illness to limit the effects of claims please check out our Top Ten Ways to Limit Claim Costs.

Frontline supervisors are the University’s biggest asset in prevention of work related injury and illness. Their awareness of the information available in the above sections gives them the tools to protect their employees. If you manage supervisory personnel please encourage them to review this information.

EHS would like to work with you to determine which of our services best meet your needs. Please contact us at (360) 650-3064 or at ehs@wwu.edu. Together we can make this University a safer, healthier place to work.