Prevention Physical Therapy - Industrial & Ergonomic
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WHO WE ARE

WHAT WE DO
Prevention Physical Therapy is an ergonomic consulting practice and workers compensation rehabilitation facility that performs ergonomic alternative programs focused on injuries, claims, and costs as three separate issues. Beginning with a work-site risk analysis of your company, Prevention Physical Therapy will then demonstrate to you, through a generated report, the money spent and lost on Workers Compensation claims. Prevention Physical Therapy will consult with both your employees and supervisors in order to discover individual details on injuries and job modifications. Then the supervisors and employees of your company are educated on eliminating stress and reducing injuries. This proven method of education, on fatigue reduction, allows for both compliance with OSHA &: ADA guidelines and decreasing costs. A final ergonomics team is developed from your employees, and educated to continue with compliance of your ergonomic program within your facility. This continued follow up allows your company to continue the efforts of decreasing workers compensation costs and claim reduction. The four stage process includes work-site analysis, IMPACC management team training, IMPACC employee WorkSmart motivation, and finally IMPACC ergonomic-team training. Please "Contact Us" with any questions you may have on Prevention Physical Therapy consulting services.

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WORK SITE ANALYSIS
After initial contact and agreement to begin a Prevention Physical Therapy Ergonomic Alternative Program, a work-site analysis will be performed. During this first phase of the four phase process, an Industrial Physical Therapist will analyze your work site for ergonomic factors, workers behaviors, worker techniques, and fatigue causing factors. Below are the goals of performing a work-site analysis:

• Identification of risk factors for musculo-skeletal disorders and back injuries.

• Analyzing the OSHA 300 log to develop an overview of how many injuries are occurring, where they are occurring, and how much time is lost.

• Demonstrates to your company what is needed for prevention before beginning an entire ergonomic program.

• Develop an ergonomics plan based on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration 3123 guidelines.

• Creation of a detailed report for each of your companies job descriptions demonstrating biomechanical descriptions of the job, observed risks, and corrective recommendations.

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ON-SITE REHABILITATIVE CLINICS
As well as developing ergonomic alternative programs, Prevention Physical Therapy can develop on-site physical therapy services at your company. The benefits of these clinics to your company and employees is increasing their productivity and decreasing lost work days. Below are a few studies and tables on the benefits of early intervention by a physical therapist:

● A study by Lauren Hebert, PT demonstrates the following benefits of direct access to physical therapists. Workers referred directly to PT by their employer needed 60 percent fewer treatment visits than workers who saw a physician before referral to PT. 132 physician-referred injured workers utilized 911 physical therapy visits, averaging 6.90 visits per worker at $607 cost per case. 137 workplace-referred injured workers utilized 566 physical therapy visits, averaging 4.13 visits per worker at $363 cost per case.

● The study by Mitchell, J.: "A comparison of Resource Use and Cost in Direct Access Versus Physician Referral Episodes of Physical Therapy" PHYSICAL THERAPY, Vol. 77, No. 1, Jan 1997. This study found the following: Physician referrals to a PT averaged 12.2 visits at $2236 per patient, while direct access to PT averaged 7.6 visits at $1004 per patient derived from Maryland Blue Cross data.

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ERGONOMIC ALTERNATIVE PROGRAMS
Ergonomic programs are sometimes focused on workplace design and poor worker habits. Prevention Physical Therapy's utilizes the IMPACC ergonomic alternative programs to view your workplace's injury issue in three separate categories; INJURIES, CLAIMS, and COSTS. Below these three categories will be explained in detail:

INJURIES: Injuries are a factor that can be reduced through changes in design and non-design issues. Design issues cause injuries by improper equipment lay outs resulting in undo repetitive forces, fatigue, and awkward postures. Non-design factors are behaviors such as; improper worker lifting techniques, improper posture, and even factors including employee-supervisor relationships.

CLAIMS: Claims of injuries are very important to an ergonomic program. The reason being is the various non-injured workers claiming they are injured. Prevention Physical Therapy observes supervisor-worker relationships and addresses the areas of communication, professional relationship, and employer-employee loyalty.

COSTS: The various costs that occur at your company come from the following issues: Injuries occurring, when they are reported, quality of care provided to your workers, and return to work policies (such as light duty or restricted duty programs)

In viewing these three categories, the typical ergonomics program does not cover all these areas. Prevention Physical Therapy believes that these factors must all be covered. Over 500 workplaces have demonstrated an average of 72% decrease in lost work days with the IMPACC program which is utilized by Prevention Physical Therapy.

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JOB HAZARD ANALYSIS

Job Hazard AnalysisThe Job-Hazard Analysis is a sub category of the Work-Site Analysis. This is a brief overview of how our therapists will consult with your company on the various job categories. During the job-hazard analysis your consulting therapist will interact with the management and employees to obtain information on the various job types in your facility. This will analysis will obtain information on management concerns and employee issues. Job-hazard analysis looks for the following factors based off of OSHA's guidelines:

Job Hazard Analysis• Awkward Posture

• Repetitive Motion

• Forces

• Temperature

• Vibration


Every work site can undergo Job-Site Analysis. This ability allows for the consulting industrial physical therapist to integrate your ergonomic alternative program to every job.





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JOB DESCRIPTION DEVELOPMENT
In order to protect your company and potential employee's, job descriptions must adequately define the job position. This service by Prevention Physical Therapy is based on the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), which covers employees on their hiring procedures. All job descriptions by Prevention Physical Therapy follow ADA guidelines.

Prevention Physical Therapy provides a service to develop a job description that not only demonstrates the basic skills and requirements of the job, but includes body mechanics, forces required, and the repetitive nature of the job to the potential and current employee. This complete job descriptor demonstrates to the employee the necessary requirements needed both mentally and physically. Below are ADA guidelines that must be followed by every company in the United States:

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

• The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), which protects men and women who perform substantially equal work in the same establishment from sex-based wage discrimination.

• The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), which protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older.

• Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which prohibit employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in the private sector, and in state and local governments.

• Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities who work in the federal government.

• The Civil Rights Act of 1991, which, among other things, provides monetary damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.

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OSHA & ADA COMPLIANCE
The main government actions that regulate employee safety are the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) and the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). The rules implemented allow for equal employment and safe work places throughout the United States of America. Ergonomic alternative programs created by Prevention Physical Therapy comply with all OSHA and ADA laws and guidelines to provide a legal and beneficial ergonomic alternative program for your company. A brief list of OSHA & ADA laws are links to their websites are listed here:

OSHA

ADA


Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)

OSHA General Duty Clause


- Each employer must follow the below guidelines or face fines from OSHA.

- Furnish to employees employment free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or physical harm.


American's with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The law for developing job descriptions in workplaces throughout the United States.


- Define requisite skills for the position.

- Define essential job functions for the position.

- Define the manner by which a job is performed.



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WORKER'S COMPENSATION TREATMENT
Prevention of injuries is our primary goal at Prevention Physical Therapy. However, injuries do occur and our physical therapists are here to provide the highest quality of service to your employees. Our treatment process includes state of the art equipment and traditional manual therapy approaches. We believe that a hands on approach allows for your treatment session focused on restoring a worker to the highest level of productivity and health. Injured workers not only are prepared for work, but also for their everyday lives. Employee satisfaction in their healthcare providers and their employers are crucial to increasing productivity and maintaining employer-employee relationships.

The following illustration demonstrates the process you, as an injured worker, will follow when rehabilitating with Prevention Physical Therapy:


Injured Worker Diagram



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