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Dina Lynch

President

DBL Mediation Associates

Boston

Yours is a healthy instinct; whatever national health plan is eventually chosen, the mediation-industry buzz is that malpractice disputes and related issues will be channeled through ADR. "Your client is anyone who spends money on litigation; it's a huge market," says Sam Margulies, mediator with the Dispute Resolution Group, in Montclair, N.J.

Focusing on pretrial work and out-of-court settlements, ADR mediators resolve disagreements before a suit is filed. Most are lawyers, though a growing number in your field are moonlighting health-care professionals.

Although more companies are using ADR, figuring it's faster and therefore cheaper than going to court, studies on its savings and benefits are inconclusive, says Wallace Warfield, president of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (202-783-7277). "There are many different variables," he explains, "and you can't always attribute the resolution to the mediator alone." Still, any past successes can be fodder for your sales pitch. For example, Judicial Arbitration & Mediation Services (JAMS), based in Orange, Calif., assures potential clients that most of its cases are solved in one two-hour session at the same cost as the average deposition.

Mediator Barry Dorn, chief of surgery at Winchester Hospital, in Winchester, Mass., suggests pitching ADR's long-term benefits. "People in health care have to deal with one another every day, and litigation is for someone you'll never see again."

Mediators agree their profession's low profile is frustrating. "Here's this great service, but how do we get people to use it?" asks Len Marcus, director of the Center for Health Care Negotiation at Boston University. To boost his visibility, Marcus speaks at medical trade shows. JAMS advertises in local legal journals and attends national trade shows for industries that need ADR.

Acing OSHA Audits
As chairman of our trade association, I'd like to organize a seminar for members on how to survive an Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspection. I'd be interested in precautions others have taken and resources they have found useful.

Gary Craig Gentry

Assistant Manager

Lubbock Feed Lots

Lubbock, Tex.

The current shortage of OSHA inspectors may mean fewer random checks, but it doesn't mean safety practices won't be scrutinized if OSHA receives worker complaints or if it learns of serious workplace injuries. Profits are at stake here: the basic violation fee has increased sevenfold, to $7,000, in a few years. But avoiding penalties is easy if managers understand the regulations, know what an inspection entails, and educate and involve employees.

Stan Fryzel, director of industrial services for the Illinois Department of Commerce in Chicago, says companies that pass inspection generally have a firm grasp on industry-specific OSHA safety codes, thanks, largely, to in-house safety specialists or trade-group ties. Smart companies endorse the logic behind the visits: to ensure that management protects employees by complying with standards and monitoring all work-related injuries and illnesses.

Fryzel explains that an inspector will spend a day doing the following: interviewing managers and employees; taking samples and photos; noting whether safety guidelines are posted; and, when warranted, doling out fines. Companies can prepare for such a visit by calling OSHA (202-219-4667) for its free booklets All About OSHA and OSHA Inspections . The OSHA Handbook for Small Businesses (202-783-3238, $4) has a self-inspection checklist and a directory of helpful agencies.

Companies that can't afford private counsel or a dedicated safety pro should take advantage of the OSHA-sponsored 7c-1 program. At the regional level, OSHA teams with state labor offices to dispatch consultants who conduct free, rigorous on-site tests confidentially be fore any whistles are blown. For an overview of the 7c-1 program, scan OSHA's booklet Consultation Services for the Employer , then check the details with your regional OSHA office and state department of labor (or commerce). The 7c-1 consultants -- often academics -- can't guarantee a company will pass a real inspection, but they can grant inspection exemptions and give long-term compliance advice.

Participants applaud the program. When Northwestern Tool and Die, in Chicago, invited a consultant to tour its plant, management was taken with his ability to flag potential hazards and offer low-cost remedies on the spot. He even interpreted new regulations for employees and critiqued the company's safety manual. Jason Noble, safety specialist at Sun Sportswear, in Kent, Wash., praises the 7c-1 offered by his state's occupational-safety agency, WISHA. "It's convenient, and it saved us money." Noble has since found new ways to learn about job safety. He's gotten useful tips from two organizations that WISHA deals with regularly: Washington's department of ecology and an agency that monitors water pollution.

You'll need to alert seminar attendees to the need for continuing education, and stress that their employees should be encouraged to learn more. If a company doesn't already have a safety committee in place, Noble suggests sending a staffer to a local college to study workplace safety and having that staffer teach coworkers what he or she learned. -- Reported by Karen E. Carney and Phaedra Hise. n

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