Slip-Resistant Footwear Case Studies: Hospitals & Hospitality
The Footwear Effect
How slip-resistant footwear programs reduced workplace falls at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, Caesars Palace, and Flora-Bama — with results from 3,400+ outfitted workers.
Executive summary
Slips, trips, and falls (STFs) are among the most common — and most preventable — workplace injuries in healthcare and hospitality. Hospitals record STF injury rates roughly 90% higher than the all-industry private-sector average, and workplace falls cost U.S. employers an estimated $70 billion annually in workers' compensation and medical expenses.
Snibbs partnered with organizations across both industries to test a simple intervention: outfit the entire team — not just volunteers — with certified slip-resistant footwear built for full shifts on hard floors.
| Organization | Deployment | Scope | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital | Oct 2024 | 2,400 pairs, donated; every frontline employee — nurses, techs, medical assistants, janitorial, food service | 67% reduction in recorded slips and falls in year one |
| Caesars Palace, Las Vegas — Stewarding Dept. | Dec 2025 | Full department — 240 pairs | Zero recorded incidents since implementation |
| Flora-Bama (Gulf Coast) | 2023–2026 rollout | All employees — 300 pairs | Zero recorded incidents since implementation |
| Cedars-Sinai Medical Center — ICU | Feb 2026 | Full ICU staff — 500 pairs | Deployment complete; results pending |
The takeaway for safety, risk, and operations leaders: footwear is not an accessory to a slip-and-fall prevention program. Deployed comprehensively, it is one of the highest-leverage, fastest-to-implement controls available.
The problem: falls are a frontline epidemic in healthcare and hospitality
Every safety leader knows the pattern. Floors get wet — from mopping, spills, splashed sinks, rain tracked through a loading dock, grease drifting off a fry station, fluids on a hospital floor. Someone moving fast, because the job demands moving fast, goes down.
- Contaminants on floors — water, grease, and other fluids — are the leading cause of STF incidents in healthcare facilities (NIOSH).
- STF injuries are significantly more likely than other injury types to result in fractures and multiple injuries (NIOSH claims analysis, 1996–2005).
- Workplace falls cost U.S. employers an estimated $70 billion annually (National Safety Council, cited by CDC/NIOSH).
- Healthcare and social assistance records the highest counts of nonfatal fall injuries of any industry (CDC/NIOSH).
Hospitality faces the same physics with fewer reporting requirements: commercial kitchens, dish rooms, bar floors, and pool decks combine moisture, grease, pace, and long shifts — the four ingredients of a fall.
NIOSH's own research found a comprehensive STF prevention program reduced workers' compensation claims by 59% across three acute-care hospitals over ten years — and names slip-resistant footwear as an important component of any such program.
Why footwear programs work (and why "require non-slip shoes" policies often don't)
Most organizations already have a footwear policy. Most footwear policies fail quietly, for three reasons:
1. "Non-slip" is an unregulated phrase. Any shoe can be marketed as non-slip. Certified slip resistance means the outsole has been tested to a recognized standard — such as ASTM F2913, measured on wet, oily, and soapy surfaces — with published results. When employees source their own shoes, the actual slip resistance walking your floors is unknown and inconsistent.
2. Compliance follows comfort. A worker on a 12-hour shift makes a rational decision: the shoe that hurts less wins, whatever the policy says. This is why worker satisfaction scores are a safety metric, not a vanity metric — a shoe rated 4.2/5 for comfort is a shoe that stays on feet.
3. Opt-in programs miss the highest-risk feet. Falls don't check job titles. At UCSF Benioff Children's, the deployment deliberately covered everyone from food service to the clinical floors — because the dietary aide crossing a just-mopped corridor faces the same floor as the charge nurse.
A footwear program — employer-provided, certified, fitted, and universal — turns a policy into a control.
UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital — 2,400 pairs, hospital-wide
The deployment. In October 2024, Snibbs donated 2,400 pairs of slip-resistant footwear to outfit every frontline employee at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital — nurses, medical assistants, techs, janitorial, and food service staff. Coverage was deliberately hospital-wide rather than department-limited, and staff chose from multiple Snibbs models, including The Orbit, The Spacecloud, and The ROVR.
"These shoes changed how our staff moves through their day. Safer, more comfortable, and surprisingly stylish." — UCSF staff
The worker result. In a post-deployment survey conducted January–February 2025, 620 staff responded — a workforce that had largely been wearing Hoka, Dansko, and Crocs: comfort 4.2/5 (81% rated it 4 or 5), durability 4.5/5 (88% rated it 4 or 5), style 4.0/5. Asked whether they would buy their next pair with their own money, 90% said yes or maybe.
In their words:
- "The Snibbs brand is truly like walking on clouds. I have wide feet and my feet have never felt more comfortable in a pair of shoes." — Nurse
- "I have gotten many compliments on the style and my feet don't hurt after a 12-hour shift." — Clinical Nurse, Pediatric Operating Room
- "Snibbs are very comfortable and stylish… my feet don't hurt even when I'm on 24-hour shifts." — Resident
- "So comfortable and I love how non-slip they are." — Nursing Supervisor
Why it matters. A 67% reduction at a major academic children's hospital is an institutional risk statistic. Applied against hospital-sector STF rates, a reduction of that magnitude changes the workers' compensation math for an entire facility — and a 4.5/5 durability rating means the control doesn't quietly degrade after one quarter.
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas — Stewarding Department
Stewarding is the hardest floor in any hotel: the dish room. Constant water, detergent, food waste, steam, and pace — the highest-exposure slip environment in hospitality.
The deployment. In December 2025, Snibbs outfitted the full Stewarding Department — 240 pairs.
Why it matters. Stewarding teams are where footwear programs prove themselves or fail. If the control holds in the dish room, it holds anywhere on the property. The property also reports reduced workers' compensation costs and consistently positive employee feedback on comfort and safety.
Flora-Bama — full-venue deployment
Flora-Bama — the Gulf Coast's landmark high-volume hospitality venue — has outfitted all of its employees in Snibbs: 300 pairs rolled out across bar, kitchen, service, and support staff over the past three years.
Why it matters. High-volume venues combine every slip hazard at once: beach traffic, spilled drinks, kitchen lines, and crowds. A zero-incident run in that environment demonstrates what universal coverage does that opt-in policies can't.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center — ICU
In February 2026, Snibbs completed outfitting the full ICU staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with 500 pairs. Results will be published in an update to this paper as data becomes available.
What made these programs work: the playbook
- Universal coverage, not opt-in. Every completed deployment covered a whole organization or whole department. Partial programs leave the floor's risk profile intact.
- Certified slip resistance. Footwear tested to ASTM F2913 (including the Brungraber Mark II method) on wet, oily, and soapy surfaces — matched to the contaminants NIOSH identifies as the leading STF cause.
- Comfort as the compliance mechanism. Shoes built for 8–12 hour shifts score 4.2/5 on comfort — and shoes workers like are shoes workers wear. Style scores mean they stay on for the commute, not just the clock-in.
- Durability protects the investment. Outsoles lasting roughly twice the industry average (rated 4.5/5 by workers) keep the control effective between replacement cycles.
- Measure before and after. Each partner tracked recorded incidents against its own baseline — which is how a footwear purchase becomes a safety result you can put in front of a CFO.
Frequently asked questions
Do slip-resistant shoes actually reduce workplace falls?
Yes — when certified and deployed universally. NIOSH names slip-resistant footwear an important component of STF prevention programs. In Snibbs deployments, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital recorded a 67% reduction in slips and falls in year one after outfitting 2,400 staff, and both Caesars Palace's Stewarding Department and Flora-Bama recorded zero slip-and-fall incidents following full-team rollouts.
How much do slips and falls cost employers?
Workplace falls cost U.S. employers an estimated $70 billion annually in workers' compensation and medical expenses (National Safety Council, cited by CDC). Hospital workers experience STF injuries at 38.2 per 10,000 employees — 90% above the all-industry average.
What slip-resistance standard should workplace footwear meet?
Look for outsoles tested to ASTM F2913, the U.S. standard for measuring footwear slip resistance, evaluated on wet, oily, and soapy surfaces. "Non-slip" marketing claims without a testing standard are unverified.
Why outfit an entire staff instead of requiring employees to buy their own?
Employee-sourced footwear produces unknown, inconsistent slip resistance — and compliance erodes when shoes are uncomfortable. Employer-provided programs standardize the control, guarantee certification, and in Snibbs deployments correlate with the largest measured reductions in incidents.
Do hospital staff actually wear employer-provided shoes?
They do when the shoes earn it. In a 620-response survey of UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital staff, Snibbs rated 4.2/5 for comfort, 4.5/5 for durability, and 4.0/5 for style — and comfort is the single biggest driver of day-to-day compliance.
Which departments benefit most from slip-resistant footwear programs?
Highest-exposure teams first: stewarding and dish rooms, kitchens and food service, environmental services, and clinical floors where fluids are routine (ER, ICU). Same-level falls occur hospital-wide, which is why UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital's deployment covered all departments.
Methodology and data notes
Incident reductions reflect each organization's internal incident reporting, comparing recorded slip-and-fall incidents before and after deployment. UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital results compare the 12 months following the October 2024 deployment against the prior 12-month baseline; Caesars Palace results cover the period since December 2025; Flora-Bama results cover the period since its rollout began. Results are observational, reported at the facility level, and are not presented as a controlled clinical study; individual results will vary with environment, floor maintenance practices, and program compliance. Survey results reflect a post-deployment satisfaction survey of UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital staff conducted January–February 2025, with 620 respondents from the outfitted population of approximately 2,400. UCSF incident and cost figures are as reported in the joint Snibbs × UCSF one-year program review.
Industry statistics: NIOSH, Slip, Trip, and Fall Prevention for Healthcare Workers (Publication 2011-123); CDC/NIOSH, Falls in the Workplace, citing the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Safety Council.