In my experience as a physical therapist working with employers to manage workplace injuries, I have found a few constants.
- Employers truly care about their employees and want them to be successful. They understand that workplace accidents occur but want their employees to have minimal impact from the most common workplace injuries.
- Employers are also keenly aware of the cost of workplace injuries and the huge impact they can have on their bottom line. I have found that most employers do not understand the massive potential for onsite therapy to decrease the number of workplace accidents, the number of recordable injuries and significantly reduce the overall cost of workplace injuries.
In essence, employers want what is best for their employees but they don’t always know how to achieve that.
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Workplace Injuries Can be Costly
Over the past few years, employers have seen the cost of treating workplace injuries skyrocket. Couple that with poor onsite triage and overutilization of urgent care services, you can see how quickly the costs can escalate. Employers are aware that the most common workplace injuries do not warrant emergency room or even urgent care services, yet without proper medical staff onsite to triage, most companies are left to seek urgent care out of an abundance of caution.
Onsite Physical Therapists Can Treat Common Injuries
For a minimal investment, employers could have an expert onsite diagnosing and treating the most common workplace injuries. Imagine instead of the safety manager with minimal medical training trying to determine how severe a back injury is, they could turn to their trusted team member, the onsite physical therapist, and enlist a real expert in helping triage the employee. In most cases, the onsite therapist can use first aid for the most common workplace injuries and keep the employee at work and recover without the exorbitant costs of emergent care.
The HR Manager, Safety Manager and Onsite Physical Therapist can be a team working in harmony to triage acute workplace injuries, provide the appropriate onsite treatments, use preventative measures and educate employees. All of which reduce the number of overall injuries, the number of recordable injuries and creates a healthy and engaged workforce. This, in my experience, is what all employers want.
In summary, Employers want to provide a safe working environment. When workplace injuries occur, they want their employees taken care of. They want the most common workplace injuries treated appropriately and cost-effectively. Employers typically don’t understand how effective onsite therapy can be nor do they realize how inexpensive adding this powerful tool to their company can be.
If you fall into this category of a caring employer looking for ways to cost-effectively manage your employee injuries, I would urge you to strongly consider adding an onsite therapy partner to your company. Therapists, like employers, are caring, experienced professionals. Teaming up together will allow your company to thrive in managing workplace injuries.
