Copyright © 2002 Business Insurance

"Wireless Tools Aiding Work but Uses are Still Limited" December 2, 2002

by Douglas McLeod

Many risk managers are expanding their use of wireless communication tools, though the use of wireless devices for such tasks as loss reporting and safety audits from remote locations remains in the early stages.

Devices that provide wireless e-mail service, for example, have become increasingly important for some risk managers, allowing instant communication in the face of disasters, crucial negotiations or even the handling of routine losses, some say.

Insurers, brokers and corporate risk management teams are also using handheld personal digital assistants to conduct safety audits in the field, though they are not yet using the PDAs' wireless features, according to some insurance company and risk management sources.

In general, risk managers are using wireless devices for communications rather than for taking over paperwork-intensive office functions, several sources indicate.

For such duties as loss reporting, for instance, many risk managers would still rather use phones and fax machines than Web-based systems, consultants say.

Risk Sciences Group, a Schaumburg, Ill.-based unit of Crawford & Co., has made a big push to interest clients in Web-based loss reporting programs that could record and track workers compensation and other losses worldwide, said Kenneth C. Ancona, marketing and sales manager.

Convincing clients to use these systems in their offices-let alone looking for ways to use wireless PDAs-has been tough, he observed. Many clients ask about innovative technology but never adopt it, continuing to use faxed forms and toll-free numbers for loss reporting, Mr. Ancona said.

"You would think people would jump all over this stuff,'' he said. "They don't. Risk managers don't.''

For some, the most valuable wireless tools are devices such Research in Motion Ltd.'s Blackberry, which provide continuous remote e-mail access, along with directory, calendar and other functions.

Michael Liebowitz, director of risk management and safety for Bridgeport Hospital & Healthcare Services Inc. in Bridgeport, Conn., said his RIM device allows him to stay in constant touch when he's on the road, rather than having to wait to plug in a laptop computer at this hotel.

"When I see something that's coming across in real time, it gives me the ability to respond in real time,'' said Mr. Liebowitz, who is also vp-member and chapter services for the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.

For example, Mr. Liebowitz can be notified quickly of an event at a Bridgeport hospital and can instantly relay advice on how to mitigate potential losses, document conditions and assist hospital staff, he said.

So far, Mr. Liebowitz hasn't added a wireless PDA to a collection of equipment that also includes a cell phone and beeper; PDAs, he said, are still too big to carry everywhere.

"I love any new gadget that comes along,'' he said, "but you have to draw a line in the sand somewhere.''

For health care risk managers, meanwhile, wireless technology itself presents new challenges with regard to maintaining privacy standards required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Until encryption systems being developed for this information are perfected, Mr. Liebowitz said, risk managers may simply have to advise health care workers against performing any wireless transmission of patient information.

Like Mr. Liebowitz, Lance Ewing, executive director-risk management for Las Vegas-based Park Place Entertainment Corp., said he uses wireless technology mainly to stay in touch. Having wireless e-mail, he observed, means being able to answer queries throughout the day, rather than having "142 e-mails to respond to'' from his hotel room in the evening.

Mr. Ewing said that among the useful communications he receives are e-mail updates from one of Park Place's property insurers, Johnston, R.I.-based Factory Mutual Insurance Co.-which does business as FM Global-about coastal storms that could threaten Park Place casino hotel operations in Atlantic City, N.J., and on the Gulf Coast.

Wireless devices also allow communications after a disaster, he added. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, for example, wireless devices were the only way Mr. Ewing could contact the RIMS staff in New York to make sure everyone was all right, he said.

PDAs and RIM devices aren't very useful, though, in handling risk management chores that involve reviewing long documents or completing extensive forms, Mr. Ewing said.

"Do I want to look at a 1,200-page loss run from our insurance company on my handheld? I don't think so,'' he said.

New uses are being found for PDAs, though.

Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. and some of its clients have begun using nonwireless PDAs to perform onsite safety audits formerly handled with paper checklists. Wireless applications for the function will be the next step, those involved say.

The insurer maintains a program, dubbed Managing Vital Performance, that identifies the causes of workplace accidents, sets up procedures to prevent those accidents and sends auditors into the field to check on whether the procedures are being followed, explained Connie Bayne, a Liberty Mutual manager in Buffalo, N.Y.

The safety auditors avoid burdensome paperwork by using PDAs, which are loaded with electronic versions of surveys and which calculate compliance scores instantly. The information can later be uploaded into databases for use by Liberty Mutual and its clients.

In construction projects, for example, the PDAs are being used not only by the insurer's loss control consultants but also by contractor employees and property owner employees, getting everyone involved in safety efforts, said Michael Caughey, a technical consultant in the insurer's Houston office.

One Liberty Mutual client that is using the system successfully is the Houston-based Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, which is nearing completion of a $324 million light-rail project, according to Millie Garlington, program manager for the authority's owner-controlled insurance program.

Used by the project's seven prime contractors as well as a supervising engineer and Liberty Mutual employees, the PDAs have allowed the MTA to quickly identify trouble spots and to compare the performance of the various contractors, Ms. Garlington said. She noted that one priority, for example, was maintaining safe pedestrian crosswalks in a "pretty wild construction area.''

Ms. Garlington said she sees the PDAs' role being expanded to such routine functions as transit facilities audits and chemical audits required by hazardous materials laws. The devices can also be loaded with pertinent safety laws, regulations and guidelines so that auditors can refer to them and-if necessary-cite them to workers.

"From a risk management perspective, I just see unlimited possibilities for these,'' she said.

© Copyright Business Insurance 2002