How best to return an iniured employee to work

By Donald R. Rung Vice President-Corporate Field Services Lumber Insurance Companies

A N INCREASING body of evi.CLdence indicates that in many ways the manner in which employers have traditionally dealt with injured employees has contributed to higher workers compensation costs, longer recovery periods and, in some cases, adverse employee relations.

Story at a Glance

The do's and don'ts of returnto-work programs ... keeping the lawyers at bay.

Either by intent or omission, when employees are injured, the following tend to occur:

(1) Minimal or no communication with injured employees in the interval between the injury and their return to work.

(2) Substantial or total inactivity of the injured employees until they are deemed totally "recovered."

(3) Not returning employees to work until they are able to fully perform the job they held when they were injured.

There is compelling evidence that not only are these policies ineffective in returning employees to work, they are most often counter-productive.

Your company's injury experience, workers compensation costs and employee morale may be improved by aggressively pursuing the following policies:

Communicate, communicate communicate!

Communication in the first 24 to 48 hours following an injury is critical. Physical injuries can create substantial uncertainty and stress in the injured employee. This is also the interval in which the employee is most likely to entertain the thought of retaining a lawyer. Reassurance from the employer, evidence of the employer's concern for other than the dollars and cents involved in the injury, and efforts by the employer to assist the injured employee with tasks and details made more difficult by the injury go a long way towards maintaining a positive relationship and encouraging a quicker return to work. This communication should be a concerted effort not only throughout the course of the recovery from the injury, but also during the initial period of return to work.

Realistic activity is a better healer than inactivity.

The evidence is overwhelming that bed rest and/or total inactivity causes rapid muscle atrophy and tends to prolong the negative psychological impact of the original injury. In the vast majority of cases, the healing process for the injured employee can be best served by getting the injured individual on his feet. out ofthe house and back to the workplace as soon as is reasonably possible. The specifics of what he does in the workplace and for how long a duration are practically insignificant compared to the benefits accrued from the initiation of activity and the ps ychologic al transition "back to the land of the working."

A half a loaf is far better than none.

Too many companies reject the concept of a return-to-work program because they predicate the employees' return to work on the assumption that they cannot or should not return to work unless they can:

Work for an eight-hour shift. Return to the job they were injured at or an equally "productive" job.

The staged return-to-work program assumes:

(1) The task an injured and recovering employee does and how long he does it for are substantially less important than the fact that in performing that task, they are back at work.

(2) The staged return-to-work program is an ongoing process of review and communication between the employer, the injured and recovering employee and the physician. The nature and duration of the task should be modified to reflect improvement in the employee's condition and increases in his endurance.

(3) The nature of the tasks utilized in the staged return-to-work program should be defined by the goal of assisting the employee in his physical and psychological recovery rather than by whether or not he contributes to production.

(4) The combination of peer pressure, the positive psychological benefits of productive activity and the physical benefits of "work hardening" will tend to far more quickly return the injured worker to the point of being able to resume the job he performed when injured.

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