OSHA’s incidence rates measure the number of work-related injuries and illnesses per 100 workers. The national average for all workers was 3.8 last year. For private industry, it’s a little lower – 3.5.

For local government workers it’s higher – 6.1. That’s not surprising, because local government workers include most of the nation’s police and firefighters, plus a large contingent of workers involved in construction- and maintenance-related jobs.

But the city of Tulsa’s incident rates are astronomical, even by those standards. The overall rate – 25.6 – was more than four times the national average.

For police, the incident rate was 29 – 2 1/2 times the national average – and for firefighters it was 56, or four times the national average.

“We should be able to drive those rates into single digits, and that should drive down our workers compensation costs significantly,” said Vickie Beyer, director of the management review office.

“Firms that have come in say we could save 50 percent to 75 percent,” Beyer said.

Because the city is self-insured, workers compensation costs affect taxpayers in two ways.

One is the $5.1 million in general revenues allocated this year for claims covered by the employee insurance service fund. This money comes almost entirely from sales taxes, and every dollar spent on workers compensation is a dollar not spent for city services and facilities.

The second is the $2 million to $5 million a year paid from the city’s sinking fund to cover claims of $5,000 or more. The sinking fund is replenished from property taxes, which are adjusted annually according to the claims against the fund.

Last month, the city issued a request for proposals and hopes soon to hire a consultant to bring the number of injuries more in line with national trends.

That may include some sort of fitness program.

“There’s a link between employee health and workers compensation,” said Beyer. “If you’re overweight, you’re more likely to injure yourself. We’ve found that about 15 percent of our employees are considered normal weight. Another 15 percent are at the top of the range. We didn’t have a measurable percentage who are considered underweight.”

Beyer said many department heads and supervisors didn’t realize how high Tulsa’s injury rates are compared to other cities.

“Many of them were shocked,” she said.

Incident rates for firefighters are normally high, and for obvious reasons, but Tulsa’s are even higher. Beyer said her office’s investigation has shown that two-thirds of the department’s claims are for injuries suffered in fire stations.

As it happens, Tulsa’s workers compensation payments have already declined about 10 percent since the high of two years ago. The city paid out $8.8 million for the budget year ending June 30, compared to $9.3 million the previous year and more than $10 million two years ago.

Pam Marrs, the city’s workers compensation administrator, was cautious about reading too much into the decline, but noted that it occurred even though the number of claims remained steady.

Asked if she has seen an impact from recent workers compensation reforms, Marrs said, “No, not at all.”