Public Health Activity-Rheinland Pfalz (PHA-RP) was formally presented the Army Safety and Health Management System Star Certification in a ceremony Dec. 16.
The Safety Star program is based on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Voluntary Protection Program, an initiative that encourages private industry and federal agencies to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses through hazard prevention and control, work site analysis, training and cooperation between management and workers.
PHA-RP is the first Army Public Health unit to receive this distinction.
"This is the culmination of years of hard work from the entire team, to include current and former leaders, supervisors and every single soldier and civilian," said Lt. Col. Kenneth Spicer, PHC-RP commander. "Inculcating safety into everything we do is essential to maintain readiness and enable the delivery of the best possible public health and veterinary services to those we serve."
The organization began its quest for certification in 2013 by building and maintaining safety training and incident management systems that covered 33 work sites dispersed across two countries.
By 2015, despite not having a full-time safety officer, 25 percent of the unit's military personnel received formal Additional Duty Safety Officer training.
"The success of our program was made possible by the gift of energetic employees at every level, who embraced and personalized the program," said Maj. Michael Moser, PHA-RP Executive Officer and outgoing safety manager. "Although our stated objective has been reached, we still have a considerable amount of work to do to sustain what we've achieved."
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