Ergonomics

The EH&S Ergonomics Program provides services for UW personnel who are not employed by or working in UW Medicine medical facilities. 

UW Medicine personnel: Click on the appropriate tab below to contact your employee health center.

Ergonomics is a practice which involves the modification of workplaces including environment, equipment, training, materials, and procedures in order to prevent work-related musculoskeletal injuries. Examples of musculoskeletal injuries include carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, and low back pain. 

Risk factors for the development of musculoskeletal injuries include awkward postures, repetitive tasks, and/or forceful exertions. These types of injuries are usually cumulative; they develop over time, rather than resulting from a single event.

Musculoskeletal injuries can be prevented by 

1. Evaluating work tasks that involve the risk factors listed above; and

2. Finding solutions to better fit the job to the person. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) website covers these risk factors as well as other contributing factors in greater detail, along with advice for how to reduce or limit these risk factors.

The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) provides ergonomic hazard evaluation tools to help you:

1. Identify tasks that may increase the risk of injury
2. Prioritize your injury prevention efforts
3. Determine whether a solution adequately fixed the hazard

Use the L&I Caution Zone Checklist and the L&I Hazard Zone Checklist to identify work tasks that require awkward postures; highly repetitive motion; repeated impact; heavy, frequent or awkward lifting; moderate to high hand-arm vibration; or high hand force that could cause sprains and strains.

If hazards are identified using the evaluations above, make the job safer by:

• Reducing the time spent doing the task (under the limit in the checklist); and/or
• Reducing the weight of the object being manipulated; and/or
• Changing the body position of the worker doing the task.

Reducing risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal injuries in an office setting can be addressed by:

1. Choosing furniture and equipment that adhere to ergonomic workstation design and furniture specifications, and meet ergonomic regulations or requirements; and
2. Adjusting the workstation to fit the individual.

Please visit the Office Furniture and Equipment and Adjust Your Workstation pages for more information.

Requests for office ergonomic evaluations

If you are requesting an ergonomic evaluation due to a diagnosed medical condition, first notify the Disability Services Office at DSO@uw.edu, then proceed as follows.

UW employees, including School of Medicine employees not assessing UW Medicine clinical space, complete the Environmental Health & Safety Office Ergonomics Evaluation Form.

• The information you provide on the Office Ergonomics Evaluation Form allows us to give you access to Comfort Zone, an online office ergonomic self-assessment tool.
• Comfort Zone asks you questions about areas of discomfort and produces recommendations for workstation adjustments and training resources to help alleviate the areas of discomfort.
• Completed Comfort Zone assessments are reviewed to determine the risk level and the need for a one-on-one evaluation with an ergonomist.

For ergonomic evaluations of non-office settings, please contact us at EHSergo@uw.edu so we can direct you to services that can help.

EH&S has provided the list below for informational purposes only. The listing of a particular group or company is not an endorsement by the University of Washington.