SPE 108554

Health ManagementA Contractors Point of View

F. Mika, S. De Sanctis, M. Consentino, and V. Nicosia, Saipem SpA

Copyright 2007, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Asia Pacific Health, Safety, Security and
Environment Conference and Exhibition held in Bangkok, Thailand, 1012 September 2007.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of
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Abstract
Differently from many other activities in O&G
industry, particularly those referred to QHSE, Health
management has not been standardised yet across the
sector. Only lately major initiatives are being undertaken
at industry associations levels (i.e. Oil and Gas
Producers Association, IPIECA, Intnternational Marine
Contractors Association) to line up the companies, Oil
companies and contractors involved in the business, on
this issue.
Saipem, as on of the biggest upstream
contractors, is working world wide often facing situations
where different Clients operating in the same country or
area have similar but yet different health related
requirements, or that the same Client operating in
different countries in
is having different approach
towards health issues management. In this condition and
circumstances
it
becomes
extremely
difficult,
complicated, time and money consuming for the
contractor to satisfy the Client and to manage the
subcontractors.
That is why, approximately a decade ago,
Saipem took the decision to establish its own health
management standards that will represent the minimum
bellow which, regardless contractual requirements, the
company will not go and will make it recognisable among
both Clients and competitors. The results of this ongoing
and never-ending process are as follows.
When it comes to the subject of health and
safety at work, Saipem strategy aims at the
maintainment and continous improvement of employees
psycho-physical wellbeing, this being considered the
most valuable asset in the companys competitive
development.
Only an employee in good health, integrated
within a safe production process and a healthy working
environment, can work in a profitable manner, reducing

to a minimum the risk of contracting professional disease

or incurring injury.
Continuous health assistance and surveillance,
especially in the case of employees with particular health
problems, ensure that the employee feels fully covered
and sufficiently integrated within the working process.
Acquired experience together with continuous collation
with its customers has lead to Saipem developing a
highly innovative, efficient, reliable and complete inhouse health management system.
This system, readily applicable to the situation in
which the company operates, guarantees: client
satisfaction, cost effectiveness and local content.
Furthermore it contributes to reinforcing the companys
image, creating a strong competitive advantage when
facing the competition.
Saipem Med is a service composed of an
international and local health staff directed by an
Overseas Health Manager, a member of the QHSE
Managers Team and co-ordinated by specific
professionals - the health co-ordinators.
The latter are delegated with the running of the
health management system at a worldwide level.
The health co-ordinators are trained to
guarantee the various local health centres sustainable
development and are ready to support and assist the
companys business management.
It is the Saipem Med policy that no one works
isolated. At any one moment, everyone can rely on a
multi-layered assistance network capable of assuring
and monitoring individual training and professional
development. The selected and trained staff is called
upon to work in the companys medical centres spread
throughout its operating sites all over the world.
These facilities respect precise standards
regarding their fitting out and the supply of specific
medical equipment, following the procedures and
guidelines of the international oil and Gas industry,
whilst respecting local laws and standards to the full.
Among the departments main activities are the
producing, processing, diffusion distribution and revision
of standard documents relative to the health
management:, guidelines, , procedures and working
instructions within the various organisational levels
(Project, business, company).
Saipem Med has created a medical programme
that has the aim of meeting the medical needs of its
employees. This is a health system that can be adapted

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SPE 108554

to the working environment, harmonises with existing

local health facilities and contributes to the analysis of
quality standards, whilst always respecting national and
international standards.
The continual development of this health
management model guarantees personnel a high level
of medical assistance. Saipem Meds mission is
therefore to efficiently and effectively manage the health
of its employees by means of detailed health
assessment, continous monitoring and the permanent
safeguarding of its personnels psychophysical state.
The need to keep and preserve the data
gathered has meant the creation of a computerised
healthwork management system structured in such a
way as to be fully operative even in remote sites and
frontier areas. The objective is to guarantee and take
care of health management assuring a constant
qualitative level in all the operational units of the Saipem
Group. The programme, called GIPSI, is a coded and
protected online software that guarantees the privacy of
both information and the individual. This allows the real
time management and sharing of data concerning:
individual health (fitness, vaccinations, injuries), quality
standards, health statistics and medical expenses.
In particular, the software contains a specific
programme, PSS - Pianificazione Strategica Sanitaria
[Strategic Health Planning] specially created for the
planning and control of the medical departments budget.
PSS has been conceived to monitor and, as a
consequence, optimise investment and service costs,
regarding typology and operational area, in order to
provide the management with suggestions for improving
the running of the service itself.
All the information present in the GIPSI is
available to, and can be exchanged with, authorised
medical staff in every part of the world in real time.
The application of the health programme for
health management passes through the health plan, a
standard document drawn up by Saipem Med that is a
pivotal instrument of the medical service. The health
plan has the ambitious aim of permanently assessing,
monitoring and safeguarding the health of Saipem group
employees, as well as certifying their fitness for work
when engaged, and periodically thereafter, through the
issue of the Medical Fitness Certificate.
The examination protocol, indispensable for the
issuing of the aforementioned certificate, is defined with
respect to the specific risks to the employees health
coming from the type of work, the environment and
geographical area of assignment. This is carried out by
means of an evaluation of the chemical, physical,
ergonomic, biological, climatic and psycho-social risks in
accordance with local health and safety laws.
Saipem is well aware of the fact that, while carrying out
certain work, its employees may be exposed to potential
pathogens. In order to guarantee no damaging effects to
health, in addition to monitoring and eliminating them
when the first symptoms arise, potentially exposed
employees are continually monitored both at their
working sites, and in their country of origin. The Health

Risk Assessment HRA has the aim of: quickly and

effectively assessing the danger characteristics, verifying
the risk, planning preventive operations and, if
necessary, taking prompt action. In support of this
fundamental activity, Med has developed a specific
software called simply HRA.
Sexually transmitted diseases, malaria, blood
transmission pathogens, SARS, Marbourgs disease,
Avian flu and dengue are only some examples of the
biological risks identified and faced. Prevention takes
place through health programmes (vaccinations, chemoprophylaxis health measures, etc.) and information
campaigns (conferences, posters, brochures, pamphlets,
etc.) that help in, not only spreading rapid and prompt
information, but also encouraging people to correct
potentially risky behaviour.
One of the most important disease prevention
activities carried out by Saipem Med on a daily basis is
the drawing up of a list of vaccinations: compulsory,
recommended and suggested, based upon the
environmental risk and the specific demands of the
project. To this end, a Vaccination Booklet, listing all the
vaccinations carried out, has been prepared, drafted and
updated by the Saipem medical staff. This is to be taken
by the employees on every trip they make.
Within our health programme a standard
protocol has been created for location and company
premises inspection. This has the aim of guaranteeing
and maintaining the highest possible level of hygiene in
order to prevent the development of epidemics and
assure employees optimal living conditions. This
objective is also pursued with the help of training
courses, addressed to everybody, but with particular
attention being paid to the catering staff.
The success of a service consists of knowing
how to understand the needs and expectations, both
present and future, explicit and latent, of the final user
and aiming to satisfy them in a competitive manner, as
defined by ISO 9001:2000. With his aim, Saipem Med
has worked out a series of proactive and reactive health
parameters drawn up on the basis of predefined
objectives.
These objectives, called HPI (Health
Performance Indicators), are aimed at monitoring the
services performance and are intended to be a valid
instrument for managers and the medical staff to
measure the performance of the medical department
and, where necessary, improve it.
Finally, the annual reports, containing the final
evaluations
of
the
results
achieved,
the
recommendations and the consequential ameliorative
action are presented and discussed with the respective
managers and medical staff.
With their unpredictability and seriousness,
health emergencies are events that can suddenly put an
individuals physical health and survival at risk. These
situations take on a more critical character if they occur
in frontier locations, far from residential health facilities. It
is in the management of these possibilities that Saipem
Med has concentrated its efforts, organising prompt and
professionally prepared medical services capable of

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SPE 108554

interacting, at any moment, with the best local and

international medical facilities, to which the employee
can be transferred if necessary.In these situations the
support of the First Aider is essential. These are nonmedical personnel that have been suitably trained
through an internal programme called PRIIN, -People
Readiness In (first aid) Intervention that aims at giving
them the competence and efficacy needed to perform
first aid. The programme guarantees a standard training
for all the voluntary first aiders, fixes the length of the
course and the validity of the certification issued.
With the aim of guaranteeing round the clock
availability of the Saipem health service and provision of
help to employees and the medical staff when dealing
with emergencies, a specialist medical team has been
created. This team, opportunely prepared in the
management of such events, responds to an internal
number on the Saipem telephone network: the Pronto
Dottore. In addition to this there is always a Saipem
doctor ready to provide assistance in three different
languages, even if only in the case of medical advice.
Therefore, 24 hours a day, every member of the Saipem
groups companies can receive, not only information
regarding the epidemiological situation in any country in
the world, but also news related to vaccinations,
diseases, therapies, preventive action or any other
problem connected with health, including medical
assistance (planning of medical examinations,
hospitalisation,
etc.).Furthermore,
this
service
guarantees the identification of suitable medical facilities
immediately available in the area or organises medical
repatriation through the preparation of long distance
flights on either specially equipped aircraft or with an
airline.
With a view towards the services continual
functionality, Saipem felt the need to embark on a
telemedicine project. This methodology, backed up by a
dedicated software, allows the transmission of data and
images from the peripheral medical units to the Saipem
Med head office and selected hospitals, where individual
specialists or teams provide support in dealing with
health emergencies. This allows the surveillance and
monitoring of subjects at risk, communication with the
doctor attending the patient and the offering of second
opinions, in real time and without the need to move the
employee/patient. Furthermore, by means of e-learning,
this application will allow the long-distance medical
updating of the groups doctors and local health staff as
an integral part of the local community sustainability
programme.
Principle 1 of the Rio Declaration states that:
Human beings are at the centre of concerns for
sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy
and productive life in harmony with nature. This has
offered an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen the
role of health at a worldwide level; an opportunity that
Saipem has grasped, setting itself the goal of integrating
business with the development of the local communities
that live in the countries in which Saipem operates, in
terms of work opportunities, environmental protection,

induced economy and the improvement of health.

Thanks also to its role as a supplier of its own health
staff working with local medical teams, Saipem has the
opportunity to contribute to a better and more balanced
world health system.
Structured and operating in the way as shown
Saipems Medical Department and its Health
Management System have been recognised as
companys competitive advantage. They guarantee,
among the other things, increased productivity,
increased cost-effectiveness of the whole production
process, makes the company more competotove on the
market, assuring more contracts and contributing to
companys growth.

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