Severity Adjusted Injury Frequency
How we measure injury rates and severity can change our understanding of injury performance.
It’s also been hard to present clearly… until now
What is the SAIF Rate?
SAIF stands for Severity Adjusted Injury Frequency. It is a simple way to quantify severity of injuries so that severity and rate can be assessed simultaneously.
How Does it work?
SAIF works by setting a benchmark injury and assessing others relative to it. The benchmark for SAIF is an injury resulting in two weeks’ lost time. This is the injury for which TRIF and SAIF would both be 1. For an Injury Rate, all injuries are assessed as 1; for SAIF, injuries are adjusted based on whether they would reasonably be considered better or worse than a two-week LTI. The result is as follows:
TRIF Rate= People Hurt / Exposure Hours
SAIF Rate = Relative number of people with two-week LTI / Exposure Hours
Average SAIF = The average score of injuries included in the SAIF Rate
Using this method, it is possible to see the difference between an organisation with a high volume of low-severity events or the reverse. The SAIF, as a weighted rate, allows a more realistic comparison than TRIF alone. It is also statistically less sensitive to the under-reporting of lower-severity events.
Why Does it work?
SAIF is simple to understand.
Real-world severity is complex. By using a benchmark and a weighted severity rate SAIF makes it easier to visually see how rate and severity of injuries are moving together.
