Musculoskeletal injuries can return to work faster
Get on the same page with employee's physician
When a worker is injured, develop a partnership with the patient's treating physician and the employee "right from the beginning, even before the person goes out of work," says Diane DeGaetano, RN, BSN, COHN-S, COHC, president of the Georgia Association of Occupational Health Nurses in Atlanta.
Here are five ways to create this partnership:
Complete a detailed current essential job function form.
"This is critical," says DeGaetano, "because then the employer and the physician are both on the same page as to what they are trying to get the employee back to."
The form documents exactly what an employee does during the day in terms of physical, mental, and environmental requirements. For example, in response to a physician's question regarding how much grasping is required in the job, the employee might answer: "I have to continuously grasp and squeeze with both hands." In reality, the employee might have a production job in which grasping is required continuously with the right hand but only occasionally with the left hand.
"By providing a very accurate description of the employee's job functions, the physician can accurately decide work modifications for the employee," says DeGaetano. "The physician is prevented from documenting that employee can't come back to work because both hands have to be used continuously."
If the doctor has a misconception about what an employee is required to do at work, "a much longer recovery period could result," says DeGaetano.
On a recent case, a doctor was given a list of required functions and checked off that the employee could not do every single one of them. However, "using the essential job function form, he agreed that the job tasks documented were tasks the employee could do while recovering from a musculoskeletal disorder," says DeGaetano.
In a case like this, DeGaetano says to invite the physician to come to the workplace and observe the job firsthand. 'If that's not possible, videotape some of the upper extremity jobs so the doctor can actually look at them," she says.
In your modified duty or return to work policy, identify some jobs that are low stress on upper extremities.
Most musculoskeletal injuries involve upper extremities, and modified duty jobs for these injuries are "hard to come by," says DeGaetano. She recommends having employees use their recovery time to complete training, which may require watching videos.
Put everything in writing.
When documenting the employee's work modifications, DeGaetano says, "I don't recommend you do anything by phone. It should be completed by fax or e-mail, so that you have that paper trail."
Offer a modified schedule to ease the employee back into work.
An employee could work four hours a day for the first week back on the job, six hours the second week, and full time the third week. If the job can't offer that flexibility, it may have to be modified so the employee can do it, but DeGaetano advises avoiding the term "light duty." "It is not very descriptive and denotes that you're not pulling your weight and can't do the whole job, whereas 'modified' means right now you are only doing what you can," she says.
Tell the employee that they may have some discomfort upon returning to work.
Make phone calls on a regular basis and explain that your job is to facilitate their return to work. "Communicate to the injured employee the importance of healthy workers to the company. It will go a long way," says DeGaetano. "Employees are much less likely to retain an attorney and turn the case into a legal battle."
SOURCE
For more information on return to work after a musculoskeletal injury, contact:
Diane DeGaetano, RN, BSN, COHN-S, COHC, Occupational Health Manager, Merial Limited, Duluth, GA. Phone: (678) 772-7734. E-mail: [email protected].
When a worker is injured, develop a partnership with the patient's treating physician and the employee "right from the beginning, even before the person goes out of work," says Diane DeGaetano, RN, BSN, COHN-S, COHC, president of the Georgia Association of Occupational Health Nurses in Atlanta.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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