Sometimes emergencies happen at the workplace. These emergencies can be very scary and stressful for everyone involved. Many times, these emergencies are due to an injury caused at work. Most work-related injuries can be prevented with the proper training and management. No one likes to see or be victim to a workplace injury. With a little bit of extra care, and some proper precautions, an employee and employer can work together to help prevent these workplace injuries from occurring. Here are four easy tips to use at your workplace to help prevent foot related injuries.

1. Keep mobile equipment away from pedestrian traffic. That means keep forklifts, floor cleaners, pallet jacks and any other motorized or mobile pieces of equipment out of hallways, corridors, and other highly populated areas during regular work, or peak time work hours. If you have to have these items in the halls or highly populated places, consider installing safety mirrors in the corners of the office. These safety mirrors can help prevent crushed feet or toes, or other severe accidents due to collision.
2. Make sure to always have someone guard a machine if it is left temporarily unattended. Lock out tag out is also a very helpful procedure to ensure that machinery such as saws, rotary cutters and other similarly built machinery does not accidentally cut off any digits or cause severe lacerations.
3. Good housekeeping is also very important for your work environment. Keeping litter off the floor, floors dry and clean, and other hazards off of commonly used paths will help prevent slips, falls, punctures and many other workplace hazards.
4. Consider using bright contrasting colors in places where visibility is limited. Stairwells, ramps and passageways are all areas where contrast colors are very beneficial to help a person see better to help prevent trips and falls.

Using best practices is often very helpful, but it will not prevent every foot and ankle injury at the workplace. If you have an employee who has suffered a foot and ankle injury and require a second opinion, call Syracuse Podiatry, located in Fayetteville, New York. There Dr. Ryan L. D’Amico will teach you about ways to prevent work related foot injuries. Call 315-446-3668 or make an appointment online today. It is all in prevention and education, let us help.