Forward-thinking safety teams are achieving better health outcomes by partnering with highly qualified and multi-skilled healthcare professionals — Athletic Trainers.
“For the first time, our employees really believed that someone was trying to help them prevent unnecessary physical fatigue and stress.” — Jim Butz, Dana Corporation
This is a sentiment we hear from safety leaders and teams quite often. Who is the “someone” helping employees prevent unnecessary physical fatigue and stress that Jim was referring to?
A Workplace Athletic Trainer, or what we call an injury prevention specialist.
Forward-thinking safety teams partner with Athletic Trainers to achieve better health outcomes and drive injury-free work performance.
Why?
For many reasons, but here are just a few we’ll cover in this article:
- Workplace Athletic Trainers are highly qualified
- Workplace Athletic Trainers are multi-skilled
- Workplace Athletic Trainers provide compassionate care
- Workplace Athletic Trainers achieve better outcomes
Workplace Athletic Trainers Are Highly Qualified
Athletic Trainers are highly qualified healthcare professionals who are Board Certified to provide preventative and emergency care, clinical diagnosis, therapeutic intervention, and rehabilitation of injuries and medical conditions.
Further reading:
– The Education of Athletic Trainers
– An Overview of the Skills and Services of Athletic Trainers
Workplace Athletic Trainers Are Multi-Skilled
Managing the musculoskeletal health of a large employee population is complex and nuanced. Doing it well requires skilled expertise across the entire spectrum of musculoskeletal health disciplines, which is precisely what an Athletic Trainer brings with them into the workplace.
Traditionally, Athletic Trainers have been utilized in the sports setting but have greatly increased their scope of practice over the last three decades. Whether they are watching an athlete play on the field or an employee (a workplace athlete!) work on an assembly line, Athletic Trainers are highly trained in identifying and mitigating potential injury risks.
The versatility of the Athletic Trainer’s skill set allows them to implement a “total” solution to musculoskeletal health challenges in your workplace. The Total Musculoskeletal Health approach we recommend to clients includes four areas of focus:
Protect: Optimize the work environment to match the capabilities and limitations of people through the art and science of ergonomics.
Promote: Deliver preventive healthcare upstream to promote musculoskeletal health where it drives better outcomes and the highest value on your investment.
Prevent: Shift the focus from treatment to prevention, transforming musculoskeletal health from a cost center to a profit center.
Perform: Unlock the human potential of your organization by giving people the opportunity to do their best work.
Workplace Athletic Trainers Provide Compassionate Care
Athletic Trainers are extremely valuable as an employee advocate and are fully capable of providing a high quality of care for both work and non-work related concerns. Our injury prevention specialists spend the vast majority of their time out on the shop floor interacting with your employee population – that’s where they earn the trust and respect of your people.
As this trust and respect grows over time, we’re able to form relationships and make the most out of every employee interaction.
Workplace Athletic Trainers Achieve Better Outcomes
The NATA conducted a national survey of industrial companies that utilize the services of a Workplace Athletic Trainer. Results of the study showed:
100% of the companies reported the athletic trainer provides a favorable return-on-investment (ROI).
Of the above companies that tracked a specific ROI amount:
- 30% indicated the ROI was at least $7/employee per $1 invested
- 83% indicated the ROI was more than $3/employee per $1 invested
- 94% of companies indicated the severity of injuries had decreased by at least 25%
- 68% of the companies indicated that the certified athletic trainer helped to decrease restricted workdays and workers’ compensation claims for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) by more than 25%
- 50% of companies reported that the number of injuries decreased by at least 50%
- 46% of the companies that provided on-site physical rehabilitation indicated that health care costs had decreased by more than 50%
Our own findings validate these results. For more cost-reduction data and client success stories, click here to visit our results page.
These outstanding outcomes are why ErgoPlus continues to utilize Workplace Athletic Trainers to add incredible value to our client organizations.
How ErgoPlus Can Help
The dedication of our injury prevention specialists and our powerful, prevention-focused approach to musculoskeletal health combine to help you achieve world-class outcomes.
People
Many of the safety leaders and teams that engage us are responding to a frustrating string of musculoskeletal injuries and disorders. Others are looking to take their musculoskeletal health program from good to great.
Whatever situation you find yourself in, we can partner with you to implement a proven and sustainable worksite health model that reduces workplace risk and consistently produces world-class health outcomes.
Our worksite health model works by deploying our highly trained injury prevention specialists directly on-site, integrating with your safety team and existing OHS resources and culture.
Your goals become our goals. Our people become your people.
You’ll find us out where the work gets done, improving your workplace one workstation and one person at a time. Our ongoing dedication to building relationships with your people and learning your facility inside and out allows us to become an indispensable asset to your safety team.
Our goal is to empower you and your team to manage musculoskeletal injuries the sustainable and responsible way: by preventing them. It’s good business and, above all, it’s great for your people.
Process
The only way to guarantee safer, healthier work performance is to proactively implement a full range of controls. Our solution is called the ErgoPlus System, and it’s so successful because we’re able to help you drastically lower all causative risk factors that contribute to musculoskeletal injuries, not leaving anything to chance.
Establishment:
ErgoPlus has a long track record and breadth of experience, and we immediately put it to work for you by establishing a custom program that fits your team, culture, and processes.
The deliverables include a needs analysis, strategic planning, leadership training, and we even kickoff with a warm-up stretching program. But that’s not all. It’s also about establishing a culture of prevention and safety that enables you to accomplish more than you thought possible.
Ergonomics:
The goal is to optimize your work environment to match the capabilities and limitations of your people. The right ergonomics solutions reduce injury risk and simultaneously improve productivity and workplace efficiency.
From conducting ergonomic risk assessments to cost-justifying and implementing control measures, we’ll ensure your ergonomics process helps you meet these goals.
Early Intervention:
Our on-site injury prevention specialist will be working alongside your employees, engaging each and every one of them just like they are a professional athlete. By forming relationships and becoming intimately familiar with the work environment, we’re in a unique position to coach employees on self-care, proper body mechanics, and work practices that drive injury-free work performance.
This model of proactive, preventive healthcare will create far more value for your organization than reactively waiting to treat the injuries that will inevitably occur in the traditional, reactive model.
Education:
As a dedicated resource on your safety team specializing in musculoskeletal health, our injury prevention specialists are capable of a wide range of education and training for your employees, safety team, engineers, supervisors, management, and healthcare professionals.
ErgoPlus education and training is trusted by over 40,000 OHS professionals to advance their ergonomics and injury prevention programs.
Evaluation:
We’re constantly evaluating progress and performance metrics to ensure you’re achieving your goals. Our injury prevention specialists and customer success team will regularly report leading and lagging metrics on your ergonomics and injury prevention program.
Monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting is important, but we don’t stop there. Continuous improvement and innovating to uncover new ways to add value is at the core of our professional services delivery.
Choosing Prevention
Because a third or more of your health and safety losses are likely related to MSDs, it logically follows that a substantial portion of your investment in health and safety controls should be allocated to MSD prevention.
We’ll partner closely with your safety team to help you earn an outsized return on your investment in prevention. The results of this partnership are world-class health outcomes, better profitability for your organization, and the meaningful work of helping people live a better life at work and at home.
Ready to talk?
Start with a free needs analysis and strategy consultation with ErgoPlus founder and president, Mark Middlesworth.
