Imagine that you’ve closed your centre at about 6pm on a Friday. Unbeknownst to you, later that evening water starts flowing from underneath one of the bathroom sinks. As no one is there to see or stop this, it continues with water inundating the entire building. By the time you’re aware of this on Monday morning, the building has suffered extensive water damage to the floors and furniture and mould has started to form. 

What is a flexi hose?

Many business and home owners will have little understanding of a serious risk lurking beneath their sinks. Flexible braided hoses, commonly called flexi hoses, are frequently found underneath bathroom or kitchen sinks right across Australia. A flexi hose is a flexible hose with braided or woven stainless steel which have overtime replaced standard copper pipes. They’ll usually be used to connect water to an appliance, such as a dishwasher, sink or toilet. The flexibility in them makes plumbing connections easier in a range of settings. However, it’s this flexibility that also creates a very real risk of water damaging your property and disrupting your business if the hose fails or bursts. 

What could go wrong?

It’s quite simple really. When the stainless steel outer of a flexi hose fails by either corroding or fraying, this allows the inner tubes of the hose to expand to a point of bursting. 

How will this impact your centre?

Any building, both commercial and residential, faces the risk of a burst flexi hose. However early learning centres face a higher risk than many other buildings given their high number of toilets and basins, and therefore the high number of flexi hoses. The scenario at the beginning of this article highlights the damage which can occur with water potentially inundating the entire building before it is realised and stopped. However, the impact unfortunately doesn’t end there. Guild Insurance has seen many cases where extensive water damage has led to an early learning centre being closed for a period of time, possibly a week. This may be because of the time it takes for the floors to completely dry. Driers can be used to speed up this process, however these are quite noisy and it’s difficult to operate a centre while these are being used. There is also the issue of mould building up due to the water damage and this creating an unsafe space for both children and the staff. There is an unfortunate potential consequence of an early learning centre being unable to operate for a period of time. Several centres have experienced their children attending other centres during a closure and then not returning once the centre is up and running. While insurance can assist with the cost of repairs and lost revenue during a closure, it can’t assist with valued clients choosing to not return.

What can you do about this?

Use a qualified plumber – There may be a temptation for some people to consider installing flexi hoses themselves, however the majority of issues with flexi hoses come about due to poor installation. Therefore, always use a qualified plumber to be sure flexi hoses are correctly installed. 

Create a maintenance program – flexi hoses should be regularly checked for damage, approximately every 6 months. When undertaking these checks be on the look out for leaks, bulging pipes and fraying or rusting stainless steel. Your plumber may be able to assist you with this process. 

Only use quality products – While all flexi hoses have a limited lifespan, some will last longer than others. Your qualified plumber should only be using products which adhere to the WaterMark Certification Scheme and carry the recognised WaterMark logo. While a high cost isn’t a guarantee of high quality, be mindful when trying to limit spending as sometimes cheap options will be of a lower quality. 

Replacement program – quality flexi hoses are generally thought to have a lifespan of about 5-8 years, however this can vary and some have been known to burst within a few months of installation. It’s therefore recommended hoses are replaced approximately every 5 years, unless maintenance checks suggest it should happen sooner. If you’ve moved into a new premises and you aren’t sure of the age of the flexi hoses, consider replacing them all to be on the safe side. This may seem overly cautious, however the time and money spent doing this will be much less than dealing with water damage to your business. 

Storage of chemicals nearby – it’s very common to store cleaning products in cupboards under sinks, which is where you’re also likely to find flexi hoses. It’s thought that the chemicals in these cleaning products may contribute to the corrosion of flexi hoses. Therefore, find another safe place to store these products away from your flexi hoses

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It probably goes without saying that as a vet you rely heavily on your equipment to do your job. Yet how often do you think about the impact on your business should something happen to that necessary equipment? Guild Insurance regularly manages claims where veterinary equipment has been severely damaged and needs to be repaired or replaced. While insurance is there to ease the burden when these events
occur, it’s also important that those using the equipment think about the role they play
in this.

What can go wrong?

A lot of the damage which occurs to veterinary equipment happens when the equipment is being transported, taken in and out of vehicles and used in various locations. Some examples of these include:

> While having an x-ray taken, a horse has kicked and damaged the x-ray machine
> While being carried back to a car after use, an x-ray machine was dropped
> During treatment, a horse stood on an ultrasound equipment

Could the incident be prevented?

The first step to managing any risk is to consider if and how it could be prevented
from occurring. In some of these cases, the incident is challenging to prevent. Animals
are often unpredictable; some cases of horses kicking have occurred even when the
horse has been sedated. However, in many cases human error has been a factor and
something could have been done differently. When dealing with expensive valuable
equipment, please remember to always be mindful of how it’s being lifted, carried
and where it’s being placed. Also think about what it’s being stored with or near;
Guild has seen numerous examples of lube getting into equipment as it wasn’t stored
securely away from that valuable equipment. When using equipment regularly, it’s easy
to become too familiar and complacent. However it’s important to be aware that this
damage does occur regularly, and vets and their staff should consider what can be done
so it’s less likely to happen to them.

The business impact

Unfortunately we can sometimes develop a casual approach to property damage
thinking ‘well that’s what insurance is for’. However, this view disregards the impact on
professionals and their business while the claim is being settled. Damaged equipment
won’t be repaired or replaced the next day. While Guild does its best to settle these
matters as quickly as it can, the business will still be without that equipment for a short period. So, when considering what you can do to reduce the likelihood of damage to your equipment, also think about how you would manage if you didn’t have a piece of equipment for a week or two.

Minimise the impact

As you can’t always prevent an incident from occurring, the next best step is to minimise the impact should something go wrong. One way to minimise this impact is to provide as much information as you can to Guild so the insurance claim can be settled as soon as possible.

If some of your equipment is damaged and needs to be repaired or replaced, document
as soon as possible exactly what happened and how. Taking photos of the damage
will also assist Guild to understand what’s happened. Then be sure to contact Guild
as soon as you can, ready to provide this information.

Adequate insurance

Veterinary equipment is expensive. Therefore replacing it when damaged will be costly. We unfortunately see too many cases where an insurance policy doesn’t cover the full cost of the equipment repairs or replacement, meaning the vet or their business must cover the additional amount. Please take the time to determine the value of the equipment you own and therefore the cost that may be incurred if it was badly damaged and check your insurance policy to be sure you’re fully covered.

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Guild Insurance Limited ABN 55 004 538 863, AFS Licence No. 233 791. This article contains information of a general nature only, and is not intended to constitute the provision of legal advice. Guild Insurance supports your Association through the payment of referral fees for certain products or services you take out with them.

No employee wants to be injured at work. And no employer wants their staff to be injured at work. Guild Insurance knows that employees and employers have the best of intentions when it comes to workplace safety. Unfortunately, despite these good intentions, we see many cases where early learning workers are injured while at work,
and sometimes quite seriously. And it’s disappointing that many of these injuries could have been easily avoided.

Guild Insurance sees too many cases where an injury in an early learning centre has
occurred while the worker was performing a task in an unsafe manner. We know that in many of these cases the staff member would have been taught the right way to do things and therefore would have been aware it was incorrect. So why does this happen? Why do staff risk their physical health and wellbeing by performing tasks in an incorrect and dangerous manner?

Examples of tasks performed incorrectly

The following are some of the common actions which lead to injuries in early learning centres:

> Standing on swivel chairs instead of ladders to reach an item
> Picking up children rather than lowering to their height
> Lifting children onto a change table rather than having the child climb up steps
> Lifting something alone which is too heavy rather than asking a colleague for assistance

Training

It’s possible that one of the main reasons people perform tasks in a dangerous way is that they don’t fully appreciate the risk. They may have been taught that it’s wrong,
however they may not understand why it’s incorrect and what could go wrong. Therefore, when teaching staff about the correct way to perform tasks, it’s important to not just tell  them what to do and what not to do, but also stress the reasons why. They need to appreciate what could happen and what sort of injury they could sustain. They need to understand, for example, that when standing on a swivel chair, it can easily move causing the person to fall off. This often leads to serious arm injuries, such as fractures, as the person has landed on the ground.

Reminders

Being told something only a couple of times, maybe during formal education or at induction, isn’t always enough to enforce learning and change behaviour. People often need to be continually reminded. Early learning centres should be regularly talking about and promoting safety and correct techniques in the workplace. This could be a regular agenda item at team meetings. There could be signs around the centre to remind staff of the correct way to do things. Staff could be commended when seen doing the right thing. Don’t make education a once off.

Rushing

One of the most common reasons people don’t do things as they should is that they’re rushing and feeling they’re too busy. Too often when staff are busy at a centre, they’ll try to do things quickly and will often look for workarounds to speed up tasks. Unfortunately, this can lead to unsafe practices and injuries. Taking an extra couple of minutes to look for an appropriate ladder or ask a colleague for assistance is surely better than suffering a serious long-term injury which may prevent someone from working for weeks or even months. Similarly, scanning the room for hazards prior to entering may aid in the prevention of a trip or fall.

Lead by example

Managers and senior staff need to be sure they’re leading by example. There’s no point
telling your staff how to do things correctly and then doing it a different way yourself. And if you think you can do it quickly and get away with it, think again as someone will see you. Not only are managers risking injury by doing things the wrong way, they’re also sending the wrong message to their staff. To create a workplace culture that values safety, all staff need to do the things the right way which is the safe way.

It won’t happen to me

We’re all guilty at times of knowing what can go wrong but not really thinking it’ll happen
to us. However, Guild’s claims experience tells us these incidents and injuries happen
to anyone, including people just like you. Just because you may have cut corners with tasks in the past and nothing went wrong, doesn’t mean you’ll get away with it next time. Taking these risks just isn’t worth it, because it only takes one time where something goes wrong for a serious injury to occur.