When an individual suffers a workplace injury, as workers’ compensation professionals, we work to put them on a path to recovery. But we all know even the most well thought out plan can go awry. Here are four factors that can impact the recovery timeline of an injured worker and solutions for how to proactively mitigate risks before they cause the lifetime of a claim to extend.

Comorbidities

Issue

The goal of helping an injured person return-to-work and productivity is the best thing we can do. Standard operating procedure for return-to-work (RTW) is comprised of job analysis and the RTW discussion, which includes transitional opportunities. These steps are traditionally part of the initial assessment of the injured person by the employer. By initiating and developing these relationships between the injured person, employer and provider you establish credibility in the coaching process and help all parties to understand the vital role of the case manager.

The development of your Post-Injury Management Program (PIM) should be a goal that permeates throughout the entire organization. It is also recommended that the workers’ compensation (WC) process and Post-Injury Management Program be communicated to employees at the time of their new-hire orientation. Successful communication of WC and PIM Programs is critical! It should include a discussion of what WC is and also review the importance of prompt injury reporting, what should be done after an injury, designated medical providers, how medical bills are handled, and lost work benefits.

Click HERE for Part 1

Click HERE for Part 2

In the two previous blogs, we mentioned three reasons why many Return to Work (RTW) programs are not successful. They are:

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Running a successful Return to Work Program (RTW) is hard work.  However, it is critical to reduce workers’ compensation claims costs.  I have worked with public entities with superior RTW programs while simultaneously working with other public entities who said they couldn’t set them up.   These were sometimes public entities with similar operations and employee characteristics with widely varying attitudes and outcomes.

In workers’ compensation claims, the main objective for an employer is to return injured employees to work as quickly and safely as possible within their functional limitations through transitional work. Stay at Work (SAW) programs allow this to happen.