In today’s marketplace, gaining any edge in productivity makes a difference. Lost work days and inefficiencies due to work-related injury cost U.S. industries billions of dollars each year in lost productivity and medical costs.
PerformaX Workplace Solutions partners with employers to analyze and address their challenges with the delivery of programs designed to mitigate risk and decrease costs. We offer a comprehensive collection of occupational health services to companies of all sizes. All programs focus on one-on-one engagement and aim to yield a significant ROI secondary to significant reductions in recordables, work comp injury rates and costs related to over utilization of health care.
Prevention is always the best medicine. However, you can feel confident that if an injury does occur, our services will streamline the process with immediate injury intervention, application of first-aid, and return to work as quickly as possible.
#1 Office Ergonomics Screening
Ergonomics is a well-established applied science that is now over 50 years old. Ergonomics is the ‘science of work’ and is devoted to maximizing human performance without causing injuries or detrimentally affecting performance. Ergonomics is a BENEFIT for companies, not a cost.
An Ergonomics program takes a basic, systematic approach and offers businesses a common-sense strategy for eliminating unnecessary musculoskeletal disorders from the workplace. Here are some reasons why this standard makes good business sense:
- Workers are the main cost for modern businesses and businesses need to attract and retain the best talent. You don’t want to hire then inadvertently injure workers; that benefits no one. Ergonomics prevents this.
- Musculoskeletal disorders are entirely preventable; most injuries are quite unnecessary and cost the US economy billions of dollars, inflicting misery and suffering on affected workers.
- When ergonomics is an integral part of basic job and workplace design, NOT an afterthought, it’s no more expensive to choose a good ergonomic design for a workplace than to choose a bad design. The difference isn’t economics, it’s education!
- Good ergonomics programs are ALWAYS cost-effective – they save more than they cost. Many studies have shown this.
A basic program of educating workers in Ergonomics and the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders are in a company’s best interests and will result in more effective work practice.
#2 Functional Job Analysis
After an assessment of work, worker and work site, employers are provided with guidelines for safety and recommendations on new work area designs and adaptive equipment. This analysis can assist with developing functional job descriptions by defining the essential functions and critical physical demands of jobs in accordance with the ADA.
#3 Pre-employment
PerformaX Workplace Solutions pre-employment services are designed to help ensure your potential new hires understand the physical tasks of their job and are able to perform them in a safe an effective manner.
Functional Task Analysis
The Functional Task Analysis (FTA) employed by PerformaX Workplace Solutions, expands on this basic overview of job tasks to include the functional weights and movements required of the job. This document is useful when provided to a physician in order to assist in the assignment of appropriate work-related restrictions. In addition, the FTA is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and useful in determining the ability and/or methodology for accommodation as well as the precursor for developing any pre-employment testing.
Post-Offer Testing
Post-offer evaluations screen potential new hires to ensure they meet the physical requirements necessary to perform a job. Our consultant will develop a job-specific physical simulation, which includes parts and equipment from your own facility to ensure accuracy.
Post-offer Testing:
- Reduces Injury Rates
- ROI of 9 to 1, on average
- Follows ADA and EEOC Guidelines
#4 Return to Work
When an employee has been away from the job for an extended time, due to an injury or other reason, ensuring a safe return to duty reduces risk of injury and the likelihood of even more time away from work. PerformaX Workplace Solutions provides services to get your employees back to work in a safe and timely manner.
Fit for Duty Evaluations
Our comprehensive assessment examines the employee’s ability to perform all essential functions of the job to determine whether they are ready to return at full capacity, or may need a transitional duty program designed for a progressive return to full duty.
Transitional Duty Programs
If a Fit for Duty Evaluation determines the employee is not yet ready for full-capacity work, PerformaX Workplace Solutions will design a transitional duty program where job tasks are added over a period of time to help the employee gain the strength and stamina needed to perform their regular job without aggravating an existing or previous injury.
#5 Functional Capacity Evaluations
After a work injury, don’t put yourself at risk of hurting yourself again; PerformaX can help determine if you are physically ready to go back to work. A Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) is a scientifically developed objective process to measure a worker’s physical capabilities and tolerances, also known as a worker’s physical demand level (PDL).
PerformaX Physical Therapy’s standardized protocols determine the level of participation and activity that is right for the patient following rehabilitation, thus providing the highest probability for return to work without re-injury.
- Reliability & Validity – PerformaX’s certified functional evaluators administer FCEs with evaluation tools and methods that are peer-reviewed, validity based and legally defensible in the field of occupational rehabilitation. All testing is performed with standardized protocols that are specific to each case in question. Each FCE will provide information on reliability of physical effort, reliability of pain reports/behaviors and safe levels of functional capacity.
- Honesty & Objectivity – PerformaX Physical Therapy provides testing results that are trustworthy. PerformaX is an independently owned andoperated company with the goal to provide fair, accurate, concise, objective data and information in each specific Workers’ Compensation case.
- Communication – PerformaX Physical Therapy’s certified functional evaluators produce FCEs that are clear, concise, timely and specific to provide case closure for the referral sources and the Workers’ Compensation client. Testing is performed in either one or two days.
- Convenience – PerformaX Physical Therapy uses mobile equipment, which allows companies and their employees the convenience of PerformaX professionals performing on-site evaluations when needed.
#6 Workplace Wellness
PerformaX Workplace Solutions’ Wellness programs include a sophisticated backbone of broad based education, intervention options, communications and tracking. As the age of the average workforce has increased, PerformaX Workplace Solutions now puts a stronger emphasis on general health education to include disease prevention/maintenance education on topics relevant to the age group 20 – 70. Information such as diabetes prevention, hypertension and dealing with arthritis are now staples of every program.
Success can really be seen when the message is delivered through one-on-one interaction with employees. Our “boots on the ground” approach has the on-site Certified Early Intervention Specialist being the consistent messenger of Workplace Wellness initiatives. This approach allows the message to be personal, appropriate to the individual and most importantly allows support and follow through.
Metrics to define success come in several forms:
- Wellness Educational Encounters (one-on-one interactions with employees)
- Changes in key biometrics such as resting BP, body composition, etc.
- Wellness “Focus of the Month”
- Employee engagement in wellness initiatives
#7 On-Site Rehab Services
Many employers are recognizing the significant benefits associated with bringing occupational and physical therapy services on-site. Some of these benefits include:
- More comprehensive treatment – A functional job analysis along with specific guidelines for improving the work or the work site can complement the acute treatment of injuries.
- Timely and accurate return to work decisions – Return to work decisions are objectified by performing assessments based on functional job descriptions.
- Consistency – The same therapist that is treating a specific individual’s work injury is also assisting with the transition back to regular work.
- Cost Savings – The continuity of onsite services allows for early intervention at the first report of symptoms.
#8 Work Conditioning
In our eyes, the injured worker is the same as the injured athlete, only the playing field is different. PerformaX’s work conditioning/hardening program uses a sports performance based methodology to safely return injured workers back to their workplace.
With a focus on the use of free weights, specialized machines, and functional activity designed to simulate the work environment in which the patient is striving to return, this truly unique program is designed to increase strength, endurance, and cardiovascular function.
Upon completion of the program, PerformaX’s “Industrial Athletes” often tell us they are in the best physical shape of their lives.