Your practice and occupational healthcare
By Charlie Schuster, DC

Workers’ compensation costs have continued to rise and constitute one of the most worrisome risks for employers in the United States.

The traditional approach to treating workplace-related musculoskeletal disorders has been passive allopathic care that includes bed rest and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication and — in the worst cases — exploratory surgery and permanent disability. This traditional approach can cost up to 30 percent of total payroll expenses.

Employers universally have three goals relative to workplace injuries:

• Reduce the direct costs of workers’ compensation claims;

• Get injured workers back to work fast; and

• Keep injuries from happening.

You have the skills and knowledge to help employers meet all three of these goals. Your challenge, however, is to communicate to employers how you can help them achieve these goals. Here are some suggestions:

• Target a specific industry and learn the jobs. Before you can help any employer, you must understand the workplace and its jobs.

Identify the industries and jobs in your locality. Become familiar with the essential job functions and the critical demands made on employees in those jobs. The starting place to do this? Your current patient base. Talk to your patients about their jobs and the injuries most commonly reported where they work. Talk to them before they come in with an injury.

Another source of information — workers’ compensation patients. Workers’ comp patients can provide you with a great deal of information. Ask each injured worker about the mechanism of the injury: Was it caused by faulty ergonomics (a poorly designed workspace) or unhealthy biomechanics (an unsafe combination of movements such as lifting and twisting at the torso simultaneously)?

Learn the vocabulary of the industry so that you can “speak their language” when you meet with management.

• Get training and information. Attend continuing education courses in occupational healthcare to learn the nuances of treating industrial injuries and working with companies. Local and national chiropractic organizations have specialty councils that offer a wealth of information.

Mine the Internet for even more information and read books written by chiropractic experts. Remember that you may have only one opportunity to present your analysis and offer your services to the decision makers — so prepare yourself with as much information as possible.

• Become a risk-management specialist. Talk to the employer with the employer’s goals in mind.

To do this, emphasize your risk-management — such use of active-care protocols, objective documentation, rapid reporting, and communication of patient-injury status and progress.

Address how you can help in injury prevention by providing safety talks, onsite ergonomic evaluations, and ongoing injury-prevention training.

Until you forge a solid relationship with an employer, do not offer education in the principles of chiropractic and its impact on employee performance and productivity.

• Offer a one-stop healthcare shop. A multidisciplinary, team approach that includes chiropractic, physical therapy, and medical care is appealing to employers.

If you are solo practitioner or if you do not have an integrated healthcare clinic, develop alliances with healthcare professionals who can provide non-chiropractic services.

You can also make your practice more attractive to employers by providing one-stop healthcare shopping. Human resources managers prefer providers who are capable of performing procedures such as Department of Transportation (DOT) physicals, drug tests, post-offer physical examinations, and functional capacity evaluations.

These services can put you on the path to employers’ confidence and trust.

THE RIGHT IDEA AT THE RIGHT TIME

Managed properly, your occupational healthcare program will provide an excellent source of patient referrals as you develop relationships with the employees you care for.

When injured workers experience your practice team in action, they recognize the difference between the passive care they have received in the past and the genuine interest you have in their successful return to work — and the impact your care has on their overall health. They will become an army of chiropractic crusaders for your practice!

Your occupational healthcare program lets you reach a larger segment of the population and one that may never have experienced benefits of chiropractic care.

In an economy with low unemployment, employee demand is driving the healthcare marketplace. Employees want what you have to offer. The occupational healthcare practice is the right idea at the right time for our profession.

Charlie Schuster, DC, is a senior coach at Breakthrough Coaching, which provides personal coaching to chiropractic and multi disciplinary practices throughout the country. He can be reached for comments or questions at info@mybreakthrough.com, or by calling 800-7ADVICE.