Health care sector trends

Overview of injury data

Lost-time injuries are injuries that occur in the workplace that result in the worker having to miss work.

According to data from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), the lost-time injury (LTI) rate in the health care sector was 3.87 workers, per 100 workers in 2020.

The number of allowed claims during 2020 increased considerably and this reflects the number of claims made in the sector related to COVID-19.

Table 1 below shows the number of LTIs, no lost-time injuries (NLTIs) and the LTI frequency rate for Ontario’s health care sector from 2016–-2020.

Source:Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) Enterprise Information Warehouse (EIW) Claim Cost Analysis Schema and Firm Expense Schema, June 2021 data snapshot for all years, courtesy of Public Services Health and Safety Association (PSHSA).

The number of workers in the health care sector is generally increasing. Table 2 contains data from Statistics Canada that shows that the labour force in the health care and social assistance sector is increasing.

Source: Statistics Canada. Table 14-10-0023-01 - Labour force characteristics by industry, North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) by sex and age group (Accessed: February 9, 2022).

Table 3 below shows how the LTI counts have changed for the most common occupational health and safety hazards in the health care sector from 2016–2020.

Source: WSIB (EIW) Claim Cost Analysis Schema, rolling June 2016 to 2020 data snapshots, courtesy of Public Services Health and Safety Association (PSHSA).

From the data shown it is clear that “exposures” has seen the most dramatic increase in the past two years (2019 and 2020) which reflects the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health care 2020 statistical breakdown

Health and community care services are provided in a variety of settings. The sector comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing health care by diagnosis and treatment, providing residential care for medical and social reasons, and providing social assistance, such as counselling and other community care services. The data presented below is based on the new WSIB updated classification structure using a North American Industry Classification System (NAICs) frame work, which came into effect January 2020. The following data below aligns with this new classification NAICs mapping.

• D3: Hospitals
• N1: Ambulatory Care - includes workplaces in the following sectors:
  • Home health care services
  • Professional health care offices and agencies
  • Diagnostic laboratories
• N2: Nursing and Residential Care Facilities includes workplaces in the following sectors:
  • Nursing care facilities (Long-term care homes)
  • Community care facilities for elderly (retirement homes)
  • Supported group living residences and other facilities (group homes)
• N3: Social Assistance includes workplaces in the following sectors:
  • Services for elderly and persons with disabilities
  • Vocational rehabilitation

Table 4 shows WSIB lost-time injury counts based on allowed claims in 2020 for each of the divisions which make up the health and social assistance sectors.

Table 5 below shows the lost-time injury (LTI) frequency rate for the health and social assistance sector based on the WSIB data for allowed claims.

Occupational health and safety events and injuries

Occupational health and safety events and injuries reported to the Ministry of Labour, Immigration Training and Skills Development (MLITSD) are summarized in Table 6.

Statistical notes

• Only critical injury events reported to the ministry are included for each sector.
• This represents data that were reported to the ministry and may not represent what actually occurred at the workplace.
• Some events may not have been classified under a specific subsector at the time data was downloaded for this report.
• The critical injury numbers represent critical injuries reported to the ministry and not necessarily critical injuries as defined by the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA).
• Non-workers who are critically injured may also be included in the ministry's data.
• The Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development tracks and reports fatalities at workplaces covered by the OHSA. This excludes deaths from natural causes, deaths of non-workers at a workplace, suicides, deaths as a result of a criminal act or traffic accident (unless the OHSA is also implicated) and deaths from occupational exposures that occurred many years ago.
• Data subject to change because of inspectors' updates to the database.