Employment History:

Published Works:

Public Speaking Experience:

Why She is an Expert:
Ms. Viscardi's attention to detail and analytical skills have established her as an expert. "I am extremely persistent in getting to the root cause with problem solving," she asserts. "Symptoms are one thing, but eliminating the cause is critical to prevent recurrence."

Best Advice:
"Enjoy what you’re doing. I love the variety of all the aspects of safety and how it interplays in a production atmosphere. If you truly don’t have fun with your job, it’s going to be a lot more stressful. You’ve got to communicate with the people. If you’re not out there in the work areas being visible, motivating and encouraging people, you’re going to have accidents. If you believe it, live it and love it, others will pick up on it."

Passionate about:
"I’m passionate about selling safety and preventing injury on the job. It’s a great feeling knowing I helped somebody in some way. It’s not just the people drawing and shipping the blood. From the mailroom person to the data entry person, as well as the people paying the bills, everybody has a part in saving somebody’s life."

Biography Excerpt:
Linda C. Viscardi, the safety officer at BloodSource for the past six years, oversees 15 fixed sites in Northern California. Prior to her role at BloodSource, she worked in government service for 27 years, saving over $6 million for Sacramento County. She is certified as a safety professional by the National Safety Council and is certified in disaster response by the California Medical Association. Ms. Viscardi is the recipient of the Professional Safety Institute Award for Excellence and Safety.

     

Cambridge Who's Who: What would you like to promote most about yourself or your business?  
LINDA C VISCARDI :  Attention to safety is part of the culture at BloodSource. Because of it, accidents have decreased significantly. Prior to my arrival at BloodSource, the experience modification was 145. That has since been reduced to as low as 105, saving BloodSource over $500,000 in insurance premiums. When I was hired in 2002, there were 67 recordable injuries for that year. Since then, through the implementation of various safety programs such as HAZCOM, ergonomic, biohazard and defensive driving training, recordable injuries have dropped to as low as 28 - a 59 percent reduction.

What is your greatest professional accomplishment to date?
The removal of the underground storage fuel tank at BloodSource. For business reasons, it was decided that the unleaded fuel tank be removed. I discovered an oversight from many years prior to my arrival at BloodSource pertaining to the establishment of a fuel tax account. This is a critical element that must be in place should there ever be a contamination issue. I resolved the matter and not but a few weeks later, notification came from the County regarding potential contamination from the removal and replacement of the original fuel tank in the early 1980s. As a result of this notification, it was required that soil and water monitoring wells be installed to obtain samples for contamination testing on a quarterly basis. Should it be determined that soil clean up is necessary, costs can escalate in the millions of dollars. Monitoring took place over a three-year period. Since we resolved the fuel tax account prior to the County’s notification of this potential contamination, BloodSource was covered by the state’s cleanup fund. Therefore, we only had to pay a $5,000 deductible instead of all the costs associated with the installation of the monitoring wells, quarterly lab analyses of soil and water, and removal of monitoring wells. About three weeks ago, I received the final site closure letter saying, “…the government is satisfied.”

What is the most significant issue facing your profession today?
The challenge is trying to impart the importance and benefit of safety when everyone is so involved with their work on a daily basis. With a staff of more than 500 spread among 15 sites, it is very difficult to get involvement from all staff levels when one is so overloaded in a production environment.