Lakeside Industries

Lakeside Industries Takes Action with Trauma Kits

company to asphalt plants, equipment main tenance shops, pavers, and foreman trucks for the paving, grade, and traffic control crews.

LEFT: At the awards ceremony, sponsored by Wirtgen Group, Lakeside Industries accepted the award for the trauma kit their safety professionals engineered. From left: Jay Winford, incoming 2020 incoming NAPA chairman; Sandy Lender, editor of AsphaltPro magazine; Cal Beyer, director of risk management for Lakeside; and John Harper, outgoing NAPA chairman. RIGHT: In addition to the development of the Field Trauma Kits, Lakeside has added trauma training to the basic first-aid training offered every two years to employees and supervisors.

Editor’s Note: In the 2019 Operational Excellence category, Lakeside Industries Inc., Issaquah, Washington, was awarded the National Asphalt Pavement Association’s (NAPA) Asphalt Operations Safety Innovations Award for the development and implementation of the Field Trauma Kit for Worksites. AsphaltPro mag azine is proud to sponsor the industry’s safety award and to share this article, which describes the company’s innovative kit.

Lakeside Industries Inc., Issaquah, Washington, is well known in the construction industry for its pro active approach to incident and injury prevention. First-aid training and supplies have been an essential part of this proactive ap proach, providing all crews and supervisors with the tools to handle a first-aid situation, if necessary.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched the “Stop the Bleed” campaign Oc tober 2015. It was designed to teach advanced knowledge and hands-on skills to stop bleed ing in traumatic injuries from gunshots and terrorism. Members of the Lakeside Risk Man L

agement and Safety Team decided this would be useful protocol to incorporate into our ex isting first-aid training, which already included cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillators (AED).

Lakeside decided to purchase trauma kits for the field crews of mobile paving, grade ad justment, and traffic control operations, as well as those at fixed production facilities, in cluding rock crushers, asphalt plants, and equipment maintenance shops. However, many of the commercial kits did not include all of the tools required for intermediate life support. Many of the kits that the team found included the basic first-aid kit supplies with additional gauze or a splint, but did not in clude the tourniquet or other supplies necessary to aid in a traumatic injury.

After much research of the commercially available kits, the risk and safety department decided to develop its own field trauma kit. This trauma kit was designed specifically for the first aid of a traumatic workplace injury, such as puncture wounds, lacerations and am putations. Lakeside has currently distributed over 90 of the field trauma kits throughout the

FIELD TRAUMA KIT CONTENTS Lakeside sought guidance for the contents of the field trauma kit from our first-aid train er, who was an emergency medical technician for the Seattle Fire Department. We described our concerns and needs with him and brain stormed together the contents for the kit.

The field trauma kit consists of the following: • 10-gallon waterproof, yellowdrybag (protecting the contents from all elements our crews may face) • CPR face mask • Universal aluminum splint • Tourniquet and permanent marker • Eight rolls of 4 ½-inch width gauze • Foil Mylar rescue blanket • 6-inch elastic bandage • Triangular bandage • Three pairs of rubber gloves • Instant cold pack • Medical tape • Medical scissors • 12 non-woven, all-purpose square gauze bandages • Safety glasses • Five yards of self-adhesive cohesive bandage All contents for the kit were purchased online and the total cost was less than $60. The trauma kit was built for less than the commercially available kits were selling for and satisfies the needs in case of a traumat ic injury.

NAPA’s next Safety Awards program opens Aug. 1, 2020, with a submission deadline of Oct. 15, 2020. Visit www. AsphaltPavement.org/Awards to apply.

The first version of the field trauma kit included anticoagulant, which the current model of the kit does not include. We decided

The total cost of each kit was less than $60.

the anticoagulant bandage was not necessary after the risk and safety team attended other trauma first-aid classes. Additional gauze and flexible wrap were added to replace the anti coagulant bandage in our current kit.

TRAUMA KIT, TRAUMA TRAINING In addition to the development of the field trauma kits, Lakeside has added trauma training to the basic first-aid training offered every two years to employees and supervi sors. This trauma training includes “Stop the Bleed” training, and a tutorial of how to use the contents in the kit.

Since the development and distribution of the field trauma kit, Lakeside’s employ ees have expressed their gratitude for the additional first-aid supplies. The crew leaders regularly review the contents of the kit with their crews and conduct toolbox talks to keep the knowledge and skills fresh. The field trau ma kits have been used in response to firstaid incidents within our company and by em ployees responding as “good Samaritans” to render first-aid at the scene of a motor vehi cle collision that they come across in their travels or commute.

Lakeside received NAPA’s 2019 Asphalt Operations Safety Innovations Award for the development and implementation of the field trauma kit during a ceremony at the an nual meeting Feb. 5, 2020. This award is given for safety practices that are above and beyond normal safety practices. Lakeside is very proud to have been honored with this award and appreciates the opportunity to share the development and contents of the field trauma kit with fellow construction companies.

– BY MELANIE FOISTER

Melanie Foister is the risk management and safety coordinator for Lakeside Industries since 2012. She was instrumental in the development and deployment of the field trauma kits. She is a member of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) and the director of communications for the Lakeside Women of Asphalt. Her husband Luke is a topside operator for a paving crew at Lakeside. She is one of the co-authors of the company’s multi-generational children’s safety book. Melanie has a master’s degree in education and previously taught school before joining the Lakeside Industries family.