TOPEKA – The Kansas Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration Division has been recognized for outstanding performance in the 2009 OSHA Data Initiative. This initiative was developed and organized by the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Each year, states collect large amounts of data for OSHA covering workplace accidents and related topics. States then work with OSHA and use the information as a basis for targeting intervention programs and performance measurements. KDOL’s OSHA Division received this award in recognition of their ability to meet certain data milestones; including timeliness, responsive rates, clean rates and data quality. A high score of 10 points is possible—OSHA recognizes states with a score of 9.5 or better. Kansas received a 9.6 and was one of 17 states recognized for outstanding performance.

“It is a tremendous honor to be recognized by OSHA with these awards. Our LMIS staff works continuously to ensure that data quality is our highest priority,” says Diana Ashwill, supervisor of the Survey Unit.

OSHA places the highest emphasis on data quality, and the Kansas team was recognized as having outstanding data quality collection, receiving five points out of five possible points for data quality.

The award was received for 2009 calendar year data, which was collected in 2010. The unit collects workplace accident statistics for OSHA in Kansas and six other states: Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

This is the second time that the KDOL OSHA Division has received this outstanding performance recognition.