By Tim Clark
Injury Prevention Programs have existed for decades. But 4 major challenges exist.
Part 1 of a 4-part series
#1
SAFETY TEAMS LACK ENOUGH BUDGET OR STAFF TO COVER ALL LOCATIONS AND SHIFTS
For many industrial companies, safety is seen as a necessary expense — a cost of doing business — so the financial leaders rarely see value from safety programs. Safety is a cost driver when it comes to the labor component for a company. In fact, some companies look at safety first when there is an economic downturn to cut costs.
So, safety leaders within industrial companies rarely have the resources or the budget to hire all the team members needed to effectively cover every employee. And for companies that have multiple shifts and several locations, the burden is higher because you cannot be everywhere all at once.
Safety professionals are already under enough pressure enforcing rules and regulations to avoid fines and incidents, running safety meetings, dealing with visitors (suppliers, subcontractors, repair techs, etc.) who are unaware of rules or not wearing PPE, and making sure your workers' certifications are up to date. Add in workers with production quotas who will more than likely cut corners and compromise safety to hit their goals and you're overwhelmed.
By being stretched thin, you have little time for proactive measures that prevent injuries. And when injuries do occur, there is little recourse but to send employees out to ERs, clinics, or their doctor — even for minor strains and pains.
When medical consultations are involved, companies must deal with a lot of lost work time and days away from work. Many managers know that a trip to see someone for occ health involves at least 2 weeks away from work automatically. This hurts productivity, affecting the bottom line, or can raise overtime expenditures, because quotas are not being met. And these consultations usually create costly recordables and claims, resulting in higher insurance premiums.
So how can you close the gap to make sure every worker is covered?
The Next Best Case Scenario!
Let's start with the best case scenario — which would be that your company provides in-house healthcare professionals, who specialize in the management, prevention, and recovery of injured workers, and there would be enough of them to cover every shift and location.
Of course, that scenario is not economically feasible. In any way. Even having one healthcare professional for each location is not a viable option.
With that said, there is a next-best case scenario and it's called Virtual Injury Prevention from Healthy Roster.
Virtual Injury Prevention gives companies a new powerful feature called Safety Ally.
Safety Ally gives your employees 24/7 access to workplace athletic trainers, who are healthcare experts in managing, preventing, and aiding in recovery of musculoskeletal injuries that occur on and off the job.
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the pains, strains, tears, and back pain that make up 69% of all work injuries and are caused by lifting and moving heavy objects, and awkward movements (bending, climbing, crawling, reaching, twisting) as well as overexertion, or repetitive motion.
These MSD experts are available to your workers whenever they are needed. Employees can easily access these work athletic trainers utilizing our walk-up kiosks, mobile apps, and via hotlines which connect them to live video or audio chats. And all of their consultations are private and secure.
The pandemic changed the landscape for telehealth, offering a way for people to connect with medical professionals to save them time and money. And your people now expect this convenience. By giving this option to your workers, they no longer need to clock-out and leave work, drive to a clinic or ER, pay fees, and wait forever, only to get referrals to athletic training professionals for extended physical therapy.
We have harnessed this technology to provide injury prevention and triage while they're on the floor in your facility! We have given you and your company a new and powerful Safety Ally.
Interested in finding out how you can more implement a virtual injury prevention platform at your company? Reach out to Health Roster now to learn how we help with remote injury prevention, virtual ergonomic evaluations, and telehealth injury triage so that you can affordably augment your safety team:
Read Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 to learn more about the Top 4 Challenges in Injury Prevention Programs