his study examined the effectiveness of governmental safety and health (S&H) consultation
programs for small- and medium-size business based on leading and passive performance indicators.
First, types of performance indicators adopted by governmental S&H consultation programs were
reviewed. Field assessment was made on the previously consulted factories to assess the S&H
performance through examining selected leading indicators. Additionally, the occupational injury and
disease reimbursement data from Taiwan Labor Insurance databank was used as the passive indicator
for the consultation programs.
On S&H leading indicators, factories that are ISO14001 and ISO9000 certified have overall
highest scores, followed by those with only ISO 9000 certification and those not certified. This
emphasizes the importance of technical capabilities and resources on the S&H performance. However,
there are significant differences in the performance of sub-indicators among factories, for example,
worker right-to- know program, ventilation and pre-placement health examination were items that
were poorly performed. Analysis on long-term effectiveness of consultation programs indicates that,
except in local ventilation, all other indicators show huge improvement right after the consultation
programs finished, but deteriorate after a few years, implying the needs of long-term follow-up.
Evaluation of passive indicators for consultation programs based on the occupational injury and disease reimbursement data shows that “caught in or compressed by equipment or objects” was the
most common cause of occupational in our studied industries. However, it is impossible to perform a
systemic analysis on the trends of occupational diseases due to an extremely rare of these diseases.