If you’re an employee in a workplace — any sort of employee in any sort of workplace — you could be at risk for injury. Sure, you could hurt yourself in a random slip-and-fall incident, but the type of injuries we’re talking about are the ones that develop gradually due to the activities you do on the job every day and the way you carry yourself — everything from repetitively clicking on a mouse to operating heavy machinery.
And if you’re an employer, you know that your employees could get injured. It’s a fact of owning a business that employs people, plain and simple.
Another fact that is true whether you’re the employee or the employer? Healthcare costs are rising. We read about these runaway costs in the media. We talk about them, think about them, and stress about them, more than any other concern, including debt, college expenses, mortgages, rent, retirement savings, taxes, even unemployment.*
Yet, most of us don’t know what to do about these costs.
Furthermore, we may not realize that those gradually developing workplace injuries are the number one cost in healthcare. There’s a name for these injuries: they’re called musculoskeletal disorders, or MSDs. Think carpal tunnel syndrome, tension neck syndrome, tendonitis, and rotator cuff syndrome, to name a few examples.
We Can Do Something About The Pain That’s Costing Us So Much.
If MSDs are responsible for the number one cost in healthcare, it begs the question: What can we do to alleviate them? Nobody wants to live with pain, and nobody wants to live with medical bills. So, where do we go from here?
The thing to understand about MSDs is that, contrary to popular belief, they are both preventable and can be corrected, often without medical intervention. In other words, the presence of a pain or issue that arises from repetitive movements and unhealthy postures can be managed through healthy movement.
Read more about Making the Pain Stop: Why Physical Therapy Should Be Your First Stop from the Spooner blog!
A Human Maintenance System
There’s a new (ahem) movement happening that brings physical therapists into workplaces to help employees achieve healthy movement and address any troubling movement patterns or functional issues before they become full-blown injuries.
Think about it this way: For any equipment or other hard asset in a business, there’s usually a maintenance plan involved in keeping it running trouble-free. But for humans, there’s not really a maintenance plan at many workplaces. This doesn’t make a lot of sense, given that people are a company’s greatest asset.
Torrey Foster, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, a physical therapist and musculoskeletal specialist with Spooner Physical Therapy and Proactive MSD, is a PT who works onsite with a local manufacturing plant. Torrey explains that PTs are movement specialists who know how to detect, resolve, and prevent the unhealthy movement patterns that can lead to MSDs.
That’s Torrey’s focus onsite at the plant, effectively putting in place a human maintenance system for its employees. We asked him about the process and what this concept actually looks like in the workplace.
The Survey
Torrey says that each employee takes a monthly survey, answering questions about how their body is moving and feeling. The survey responses tell Torrey which individuals he needs to help, but also provide data on a higher level about issues that need to be addressed. “We get that information back, and I can look strategically at certain areas of the company to see where the highest risk is, from the location, to the department, to the job position, right down to the employee,” Torrey says.
Torrey also gathers insights when he visits employees at their desk or work area, observing things like posture and ergonomics, and often helping them to make changes on the spot. He communicates his recommendations to the direct supervisors and the leadership team “not only to help an individual, but to help the entire employee population. We’re really working on population health and preventative practices to help the employees optimally live better and work more comfortably.”
The Plans
From there, Torrey creates and implements individualized, job-specific plans that help employees deal with the discomfort or troubles they are having, and prevent them from worsening.
These plans include what Torrey calls “countermeasures, which may include OSHA first aid, ergonomic instruction, and/or counseling or training to improve work tasks.”
Torrey develops programs for each employee that he calls “Unlock,” “Unload,” or Unwind.” His aim is to educate employees on the tools and tactics they can use to alleviate their pain and discomfort.
- Unlock: This program would involve stretching and warm-up routines that are designed to release anything in the body that is bound up. Unlock routines “prepare them to get ready for what they have to do in their day,” Torrey says.
- Unload: “Load” or force produced by a muscle or on joints is what causes pain and discomfort. Unload programs help the body reduce those forces. One example Torrey gives is lying on your back to reduce the load on your spine.
- Unwind: If someone is always in the same position, then, “we want to do a reversal of what they’re frequently positioned in. We unwind to decrease the strain on muscles and joints in the body.”
He says that he’s found that employees who do their programs for just five minutes or so at the start and end of the workday, and sometimes in the middle, see a big difference. Employees typically visit him one to three times onsite. “We all have our days and are busy, but one of the big things I do is try to give them something where they feel the benefit right away and where I’m setting them up for success.”
In addition to the benefits to the employee, Torrey points out that there are benefits to the employer. “As employees utilize this benefit, they are going to have reduced time off work due to MSDs, and they’re going to feel better, move better, and be happier in their job. Employers are going to be able to retain their employees and will hopefully have decreased group health costs and decreased workers comp concerns. It’s a win-win on both sides.”
Are you an employer interested in helping your employees feel better, happier, and boost productivity at work? Visit Proactive MSD and learn how we help!
Learn more about Work Injury Rehabilitation at Spooner Physical Therapy. Ready to schedule an appointment? Click Here to schedule an appointment or complimentary movement screen with a Spooner physical therapist at one of our locations throughout the valley.
*Employee Risk Advisor, April 2019