Mahboobeh Kefayati, Mahnaz Mirza Ebrahim Tehrani, Omid Saber Fard,
Volume 10, Issue 4 (11-2020)
Abstract
Introduction: Even with the rising number of diseases and their severity as well as occupational-environmental accidents occurring within organizations, most managers do not still care about the profitability of implementing the health, safety, and environment (HSE) management system requirements.
Material and Methods: Accordingly, the integration of the HSE costs calculated through engineering-economics relations was investigated to evaluate the given profitability using a different approach. For this purpose, costs of diseases and occupational-environmental accidents were computed (n=2207), and then lack of their spending was considered as system income. By determining the correlation and calculating the P-value as well as the associated costs, the regression model was subsequently fitted. Investment in the HSE management system was further examined, and return on investment (ROI) and net present value (NPV) were calculated. Afterwards, the relationship between ROI and disease recurrence rates together with occupational-environmental accidents was explored.
Results: health costs with a P-value=0.03 had a significant effect on disease recurrence rates, so that the incidence rate was equal to 1.432 e-15 as it increased by one unit. The costs of accidents with a P-value=0.048 also had a substantial impact on the occurrence of occupational accidents and a growth by one unit, wherein the accident recurrence rates were 9.183 e. However, no significant association was found between environmental accidents and disease incidence rates.
Conclusion: The results implied that investment in HSE management systems is not just in accordance with implementing profitability requirements, but it should be targeted and based on priorities, influenced by the results of examining root causes of diseases and accidents as well as assessing risks facing organizations.
Salimeh Ghassemi Jondabeh, Tooraj Dana, Maryam Robati, Zahra Abedi, Farideh Golbabaei,
Volume 14, Issue 2 (6-2024)
Abstract
Introduction: Improving health and the environment is one of the components of development, social welfare, and economic growth. Another influential factor in increasing health costs and reducing social welfare is work-related accidents and diseases, which impose high costs on individuals, industries, and the national economies of countries. Therefore, using multi-criteria decision-making methods, the present study provided a conceptual model to identify and rank work-related diseases’ environmental and health costs.
Material and Methods: The present study was conducted in 2023. A classification model for the economic evaluation of environmental and health costs of occupational diseases was developed to achieve the study’s aim. In the current research, the Delphi method was used to identify health and environmental criteria, and the Analytic Network Process (ANP) was used to weight the sub-criteria. Finally, the cost of health and the environment was estimated based on the available information. Naft Tehran Hospital (NSHT) was also selected as a case study site.
Results: The results showed that the drug and medical equipment cost factor, with a weight of 0.312 in the treatment sector, and the particular and infectious waste cost factor, with a weight of 0.085, were the most critical factors in the economic evaluation. Also, the parametric model results showed that 99.84% of the total costs are related to health costs, and 0.16% are related to environmental costs. In general, the results of this research showed that 61.3% of the costs of the health sector are related to the two sectors of medicine and medical equipment and the cost of service personnel, and 91.7% of the costs of the environmental sector are related to wastewater treatment and the cost of electricity consumption.
Conclusion: This study presented a semi-quantitative model to estimate health and environmental costs caused by occupational diseases. The results can create a novel scientific insight into implementing control measures using the optimal point of cost-benefit parameters. Implementing this integrated model can be a practical and effective step in allocating resources and prioritizing interventions.
