Recently issued guidance directs Army organizations to adopt a modernized safety and occupational health (SOH) management system that helps ensure personnel have a safer and more healthful work environment.
Army Directive 2024-09 dictates implementation of the Army Safety and Occupational Health Management System (ASOHMS), which provides systematically managed SOH programs that enhance mission capabilities, reduce SOH-related mishaps and improve personnel readiness through effective risk management. ASOHMS is critical to safety because it provides Army organizations with the tools to transform their compliance-based SOH programs into a proactive, prevention-based approach.
“ASOHMS is a business process, which doesn’t necessarily change what we do as safety and occupational health professionals, but more so, how we manage safety and occupational health,” said Stephen Schwartz, senior safety manager with the Army Safety Office. “It will permanently improve an organization’s SOH program performance and injury-reduction efforts over time by ensuring hazards and risk controls are well-thought-out, appropriate with the corresponding risk level, and communicated, while maintaining effective controls. Ultimately, ASOHMS will enhance the organization’s mission readiness.”
Preventable damage, injuries and illnesses cost the Army approximately $3 billion annually. Additionally, about 25 percent of Soldiers are in a restricted duty status at any given time due to preventable injuries and illnesses.
"Army Leaders at all levels are currently faced with mitigating this trend with fewer and fewer resources," said Marjorie McDonald, director of SOH and the Army OSHA national program manager for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Installations, Energy and Environment). "This modern approach to safety and occupational health enables Army leaders to do more with less by placing less reliance on rigid policies, single individuals and/or units and more emphasis on checking and acting on the organization’s processes to reduce risk even as personnel change."
The ASOHMS framework is comprised of six distinct capability objectives that include 48 measurable criteria elements:
- Leadership Engagement and Personnel/Soldier Readiness
- Investigate and Report Mishaps, Incidents and Illnesses
- Conduct SOH Training and Promotion
- Conduct Inspections and Assessments
- Conduct Hazard Analysis and Develop Countermeasures
- Health Protection and Readiness
Army organizations incrementally implement ASOHMS through three stages of maturity: documentation, implementation and execution, and sustainment and continuous improvement. Successfully completing a comprehensive maturity evaluation will result in the organization being recognized with an Army SOH Star.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and U.S. Army Medical Command, which have piloted the ASOHMS program since 2015, both saw a significant reduction in mishaps and personnel injuries. Additionally, industry and Army organizations that used programs similar to ASOHMS to improve the safety and health of their workforces typically reduced injuries and illness by 50 percent.
The USACE, Honolulu District (POH), achieved Army SOH Star status earlier this year following implementation of a nearly identical system — the Corps of Engineers Safety and Occupational Health Management System (CE-SOHMS). Since starting Stage 1 of CE-SOHMS implementation in 2019, the organization has experienced promising results, said Jeremy McCranie, chief of SOH at USACE POH, and Joshua Moskowitz, POH collateral duty safety officer.
“We’ve seen drastic decreases in tracked lagging indicators. Worker’s compensation costs among USACE employees have decreased 100 percent and near-miss/good-catch reporting increased nearly 142 percent,” McCranie and Moskowitz said.
The USACE POH team added, “Preliminary results from an ongoing case study have also identified a moderate correlation between ASOHMS implementation progress and several contractor accident rates, which dropped anywhere from 58 to 84 percent from the first to last year of implementation.”
For all Army commands, whether the generating force or the operating force, ASOHMS is simply a way of doing business that connects the dots between program elements, reduces stovepipes of communication, and connects leadership and agencies to help organizations see themselves, identify gaps in their program and adjust their management system to address these gaps.
The Assistant Secretary of the Army (Installations, Energy and Environment) will publish further implementation guidance for Army organizations within the next month. Army commands and organizations should be fully compliant with the directive by the end of calendar year 2030.
For more information, view Army Directive 2024-09 at https://safety.army.mil/Portals/0/Documents/MEDIA/MESSAGESFROMLEADERSHIP/Standard/AD-2004-09_ASOHMS.pdf. Download the ASOHMS framework guide at https://safety.army.mil/Portals/0/Documents/MEDIA/BROCHURESANDPAMPHLETS/Standard/Army%20Safety%20and%20Occupational%20Health%20Management%20System%20(ASOHMS).pdf.
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