As the E&P industry evolves and faces new challenges, organizations need to address ever-changing health requirements of remotely located projects. By taking preventative measures and investing in quality healthcare providers to protect their workforces, they ultimately ensure continuity of operations.
CHRIS MURFF, RMI
For oil projects, it is mission-critical that organizations ensure that robust health and safety practices are in place, both before and during operations. Distance from definitive care, environmental extremes, and limited resources are challenges to be mitigated through project planning. Planning to prevent injuries and protect the wellbeing of the current workforce is the most effective way to reduce disruption and delays at drilling sites, offshore oil platforms and supporting vessels, Fig. 1.
Accordingly, this article touches on the following topics, which are components of the overall goal:
PRE-EMPLOYMENT SCREENING
Many of the challenges that offshore employees face are caused by a lack of preparation for living and working remotely. This is because there is no one-size-fits-all approach to prepare workers for the varying levels of remote conditions around the world. For offshore oil projects and oil drilling platforms, partnering with expert medical providers for a thorough pre-screening process has a significant impact on reducing the number of incidents and accidents that occur during operations.
Thorough screening for employees should seek to accurately assess their health and physical capabilities, Fig. 2. The results of these screenings, both pre-employment and ongoing, can highlight serious medical conditions that workers can be motivated to hide, to stay employed. Pre-screening serves to protect both the workers and the employer. For workers, it is only by working with a medical provider that they will be able to access the support and care and, for example, the volume of medications needed to manage conditions while on a long placement. And for employers, having a clear understanding of pre-existing conditions of their workforce, and working with a trained provider to manage the care of their workforce, reduces the risk of issues and disruption later down the line.
For offshore industries, the Offshore Energies United Kingdom (OEUK) medical exams are the industry-standard medicals, Fig. 3. The thorough tests in OEUKs ensure that personnel being deployed are medically fit to work in an offshore environment. They are performed by a registry of trained and certified doctors, who understand the offshore environment and remote and occupational medicine.
Coordinating prescribed medicals for an organization is no easy task. Currently, RMI is overseeing a new assessment center in New Bedford, Mass., where our OEUK-registered doctors review industry-standard medical screenings for workers, prior to being deployed offshore. Coordinating industry standard medical assessments for offshore organizations that are not located near a registered clinic ensures that personnel are not required to travel far to receive gold standard medical examinations. This service, delivered at the embarkment point, limits any operational delays to projects in the area beginning, and fulfils all the requirements of the major construction trade unions to protect the workforce.
PREVENTATIVE CARE REDUCES DELAYS
Once a screening program is in place, ensuring that individuals are fit to work, preparation is then key to prevent injury. It is no secret that rigs are a volatile environment, and are prone to constant shifts in strategy, changes in equipment and personnel, depending upon location, on top of varying local logistical and legal requirements. The effectiveness of health, safety and medical services can have a significant impact on the outcomes of injury treatment and prevention strategies. And, with incidences such as the pandemic also impacting planning and operations, we would recommend engaging with professional service providers for health and safety that are actively working in offshore medicine.
RMI’s approach is first, and foremost, preventative. Our offshore medics (Fig. 4) support oil companies, not only by employing medical screenings, but conducting ongoing wellness programs, fitness campaigns, and health and hygiene inspections to help reduce the likelihood of more significant events altogether. Although our medics are prepared to readily support an evacuation, we hope that their continual presence serves to mitigate the associated risks, costs, and project impacts of any major incident.
REMOTE CLINICS FOR EVERY SITUATION
To support a preventative care program, all medical professionals working onsite need to be equipped with the right degree of medical self-sufficiency. This means access to remotely delivered services, such as telemedicine support, evacuation capabilities, and case management—since accessing emergency services is simply not an option in the most remote and austere of environments.
Organizations must consider a tailored approach when it comes to onsite medical facilities, which can be temporarily or permanently integrated into a site or operate in mobile structures. This temporary and scalable footprint means offering care for both occupational and non-occupational injuries and illnesses, together with around-the-clock services to provide telemedicine support and case management. This all helps to limit the number of cases that require referral to further off-site medical care, saving time and resources, as well as increasing efficiency by enabling the worker to return to work as soon as possible.
A good example of the value of the emergency medical services we provide is illustrated by RMI’s onsite provision for a drilling program in Wyoming. This service includes 24/7 medical support from qualified Emergency Medical Technicians, based in our Mobile Treatment Centers (MTC). These four-wheel drive clinics are stationed at the drill site, allowing our medical staff to provide treatment in the types of environments that standard emergency vehicles are unable to reach. In addition to a treatment area, storage and handwashing facilities, each MTC is equipped with first aid supplies and emergency response equipment, meaning that our medics are well prepared to respond to a medical emergency.
CORE SKILLS REQUIRED OF OFFSHORE HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS
To thrive successfully in this type of environment, health care providers also need to have a special set of characteristics and skills to deal with a range of situations. They need to be self-motivated, have a high degree of integrity, and be able to work independently in isolated environments. They also need to have a strong clinical background to provide primary health care diagnosis and treatment.
To respond to more severe cases, emergency response is a core component of RMI services, and all our medics are trained in emergency medical service skills. This doesn’t just include advanced wound care training, but also the knowledge of what intervention is best for the patient while keeping recordable cases to an absolute minimum. In addition to this, our medics are trained and experienced in medicine specific to industrial work, such as primary care training and occupational health and safety awareness training. This additional level of knowledge enables our providers to supplement the skillset of the project’s existing workforce.
By interacting regularly and building trusted relationships with the offshore workers, our medics become highly valued members of the team, ensuring that if injuries or illnesses do occur, workers readily seek medical support. This enables swift communication and response and is essential to prevent some of the potentially life-threatening injuries sustained on offshore oil rigs, platforms and other worksites, Fig. 5. All of this helps our medics in emergency situations as they need to be able to adequately portray their physical findings and observations of a patient encounter, to ensure good patient care and reduce lost time, due to injury or illness.
PRIORITIZING MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Despite the offshore industry's recognised workplace pressures, the stigma regarding mental health continues to be perpetuated across the oil and gas sector. For offshore sites in particular, not only are rotational workers entering a highly controlled environment, but they also endure prolonged periods of time away from family and friends. Long shift patterns and confined working spaces on an oil rig can make it difficult for workers to maintain healthy habits, Fig. 6. This combination of factors can be challenging on employees’ mental health and can increase the likelihood for any pre-existing health problems to become amplified offshore.
The high workload and repetitive nature of work within the oil sector has long been associated with mental ill health and exhaustion among employees. According to research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), mental ill health is the top cause of long-term absence (four weeks or more) for all employees. Once workers become ill or are absent, due to poor mental health, this, in turn, can result in a devastating rise in lost productivity to organisations globally.
While varying degrees of mental health support for workers is already in place across the sector, there is still more that can be done. As a longstanding global provider of health and safety services to the offshore industry for the past 20 years, RMI remains committed to mental health support. By regularly attending mental health conferences, our medics are able to maintain best practice and continuously improve their service, identifying new avenues of support, and implementing new strategies, based on feedback from experts within the wider community.
The core program of health services offered by RMI’s healthcare practitioners stationed at drilling sites around the world includes the delivery of various mental health programs, which help employees to lead a healthy lifestyle. Alongside access to 24/7 support, our medics are responsible for promoting simple practices of self-care, optimal sleep hygiene and rest, a varied and wholesome diet, regular exercise, and avoiding excessive phone use in-between shifts. Medical personnel need to ensure that mental health webinars and surveys, informal workshops, and awareness-raising campaigns are all made available and front of mind, which helps to ensure that the wellbeing of offshore workers is never neglected.
As the oil industry evolves and faces new challenges, organizations will need to address the ever-changing health requirements of remotely located projects. By taking preventative measures and investing in quality healthcare providers to protect their workforces, they will ultimately ensure the continuity of their operations.
ABOUT RMI
Headquartered in Seattle, Wash., USA, RMI saves lives and protects the health and wellbeing of workers in diverse job sites from remote pipeline installations to offshore wind and maritime operations. The company has been recognized six times by Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States and works with Fortune 100 corporations and government services prime contractors. WO
CHRIS MURFF is Vice President of Sales at RMI. He holds 20 years of experience in the international security and medical assistance sectors, with primary focus on challenging or remote environment. Mr. Murff is a graduate of Baylor University.