Metodología de evaluación de costos de la Promoción y Prevención en Seguridad y Salud en el Trabajo para empresas colombianas

Abstract

Colombian regulations on occupational hazards or Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) are increasingly demanding for companies. In recent years, companies have had to give greater importance to the dangers to which their workers are exposed and have been forced to implement an Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS). Companies must allocate economic resources to develop actions for Health Promotion and Prevention of occupational risks (P&P), and for the allocation of these economic resources they must have a budget of their OHSMS, and currently there is no regulation that requires apply a defined methodology to make this budget or to carry out the different cost analyzes in OSH.

In the literature there are various methodologies and a large amount of work in the world on economic evaluations in health science technologies; and few studies have focused on analyzing the relationship between work and health, the costs associated with Accidents at Work and Occupational Diseases, including the implications for organizations. This is why a literature review was carried out in different databases to collect the most relevant information and identify the theoretical references that allow the reader to understand how OSH costs have been evaluated and that is a theoretical basis for policy makers. OSH decisions by organizations. Two methodological tools were designed to evaluate OSH costs for Colombian companies, which will serve both for private sector companies and for public sector entities. For this, an adaptation of terms from other countries to the Colombian context was made and concepts exclusively from Colombian regulations were included. These methodological tools were structured so that organizations in Colombia can make a comparison in economic terms of what they invest in a prevention period (it can be a P&P program or the organization's OHSMS), against what would be the worst consequence (the cost of the occurrence of an Occupational Accident or the diagnosis of an Occupational Illness). The final result of this research will be a help for decision makers or those in charge of OSH of companies, it will also be a help for managers or administrators of companies because they will be able to see different aspects of OSH management in economic terms, and They will be able to review the priorities that are had in this field within their companies.