Ergonomics: Promoting Healthy Employees and Preventing Injury
Ergonomics: Promoting Healthy Employees and Preventing Injury
"The best solution is to recognize and address discomforts issues before they become an injury." Sue Patenaude
Injured workers and their management are exposed to a wide variety of information from a variety of sources, medical and safety are only a few. Recovery can be confusing and unnecessarily extensive.
In cases where discomfort becomes injury, it is critical to early resolution without complication to identify the root cause. Root cause must include the fundamental soft tissue, joint, and movement as well as the basic ergonomic factors of repetition, force, duration, and posture. If the fundamental anatomical part and movement is identified, it is then possible to identify substitute movements that will allow for recovery and prevent recurrence.
Skilled root cause analysis is essential to case management.
Every individual must be thoroughly familiar and self reliant with the fundamentals ofthe injury and how to recover, irrespective of treatment, lost work time or other typical "treatment"remedies. Without that information, treatment and lost/modified work are at high risk for being unnecessarily extensive, with recurrence likely. This information must include work and non work activities as cumulative trauma is not partial to the location of the activity.
Our perspective and skill is an outcome of our service reputation resting on the quick response to our interventions and the ability to see and modify the functions the employee is performing and their unique body mechanics. Our clients experience dramatic reductions in injury rates, amount of treatment and lost work time. The Patenaude team has pioneered the treatment of cumulative trauma injuries in industry by working in clinics within industrial sites since 1983 and having treated thousands of employees. Our perspective and skill is an outcome of our service reputation resting on the quick response to our interventions and the ability to see and modify the functions the employee is performing and their unique body mechanics. Our clients experience dramatic reductions in injury rates, amount of treatment and lost work time.
Discomfort
Programs that promote early identification of ergonomic discomfort are the most mature and experience the most efficient use of ergonomic benefits. Employees are provided with an 800 number and email contacts so that they may ask for assistance in root cause identification and modifications to mediate the discomfort. Modifications are generally possible through changes in body mechanics and other "no cost" corrections. The modifications may be applied across a business unit in order to reduce risk to a group of employees performing similar tasks and functions. Close communication is maintained with management and supervisors to ensure appropriate applications, awareness and avoidance of the perception that injury reporting is discouraged. Employees are encouraged to report injury if severity warrants and at times, professional evaluators request employees to report an injury; however, if employees are empowered to recognize their own levels of discomfort and take action early, injury reporting is significantly reduced.
The Patenaude team has extensive experience and skill working with discomfort identification programs and has been the source of requests to help particular business units experiencing high injury rates. A recent example occurred with a biotech client experiencing high injury rates within their line and inspection operator teams. A discomfort program was initiated as well as the design of state of the art inspection booth equipment, with the assistance of engineering professionals. The injury rate reductions have been between 85-90% per client.
Task Modification/Rotation
High risk functions with less than ideal equipment, can experience significant risk reduction by modifying the task and providing carefully analyzed rotation schedules. Those situations where employees are using equipment that may not be ideal for individual anthropomorphics, are frequently appropriate for changing placement of equipment, tools or supplies and/or designing rotation schedules that match the risk factors, i.e., if there are risks for shoulder discomfort at one station, the following rotation should not include risks for shoulder discomfort. This may be employee generated rather than equipment. Equipment that fits one employee may not fit others. These rotations are most effective if they are based on body part risks rather than purely repetition, duration, force aspects.
With feedback and information from operators and supervisors, the Patenaude team has provided a variety of complex rotation schemes for our clients resulting in a high level of satisfaction and the ability to effect risk reduction during prolonged periods of equipment changes.
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