Code Enforcement Night Team (CENT) • Montgomery County, Md.
Members of the Montgomery County Fire Code Enforcement division developed the Code Enforcement Night Team (CENT) to conduct fire safety code inspections during holiday seasons. It is during these seasonal periods that shopping malls and department stores have more combustible merchandise on display and in storage and attract more customers. Such a combination could contribute to a catastrophic loss of life should fire occur.
Visits by CENT program personnel ensures code compliance and encourages business owners and their employees to develop a proactive attitude toward fire and life safety.
To better educate business operators, the Fire Code Enforcement Section created an “ESCAPE” flyer. It stands for exits, storage, capacity, access/aisles, protection and emergency lighting. As the inspector and manager tour the store, each of these items is discussed. Copies are left with managers for posting and sharing with employees.
This is a relatively low-cost program. There is no overtime salary cost since the program recruits trained volunteers to work “flex-time.” In 2001, a total of 294 fire safety code violations were identified and corrected.
Worker’s Compensation Process Improvement • Montgomery County, Ohio
Montgomery County created a new workers’ compensation management process in response to rapidly rising worker’s compensation losses and premiums in the first half of the ’90s. The program seeks to provide the injured employee with appropriate medical care in a timely and cost-effective manner.
The new procedures include shifting claims responsibility from a centralized office to a decentralized department-based process; adopting an aggressive countywide return-to-work program; implementing a wage continuation policy; and developing a medical provider gatekeeper network in conjunction with the state’s MCO (managed care organization) network.
The county also put in place a workers’ compensation liaison team and a worker’s compensation partners team, consisting of county risk management, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (OBWC), a third-party administrator and the MCO.
The average annual cost of the program is approximately $98,000 — $25,000 of which is directly incurred by the county — $15,000 outside consultant fee and $10,000 internal costs associated with meetings, training sessions, and printing.
Since implementing this program, the county experience modification rate has gone from 18 percent “penalty-rated” to 56 percent “credit rated,” resulting in reduced premium from the OBWC. The county’s total modified losses have dropped by 66 percent from $9.6 million in 1996 to $3.2 million in 2000.
