Rehabilitation benefits

Over the last twelve months there has been a discernible change among insurers in their attitude towards rehabilitation services.

Having long been the accepted wisdom in some countries, including Australia and Canada, rehabilitation services have finally registered on the UK corporate radar. While there is still a long way to go before they are regarded as integral to the workplace, it would seem that companies which have reconsidered their working practices to include rehabilitation will be looked on more favourably when it comes to settling annual insurance premiums.

People are the most valuable asset to any business and the cost to a business of a workplace accident can be immense. This applies equally to general limb fractures and severe injuries such as amputation, through to chronic pain, mood fluctuations or psychological trauma.

A well thought-through rehabilitation strategy can help minimise risk, reduce the probability of further accidents and have a positive impact on insurance premiums.

Rehabilitation services are completely different from absence management and occupational health programmes. Yet this is still the fall back position for many companies who believe, wrongly, that this will be sufficient to make the workplace safer and ensure employee absence is reduced.

The cost of an accident can easily become a high multiple of the insurance compensation claim, if factors such as lost productivity, recruitment issues, the need for retraining, the knock-on effect of overtime for fellow employees and the impact on morale generally are all taken into account.

Insurance premiums are now more likely to reflect the readiness of a business to deal with these problems and how prepared that business is to deal with them. At Kynixa we speak to insurance companies on a daily basis and many are now actively involved in dialogues with policy holders.

The best rehabilitation programmes integrate clinical and vocational rehabilitation and coordinate treatment and recovery with a return to work. Clear final goals have to be set with agreed milestones along the way. This is particularly relevant for the crane and transportation sector where injuries can often be traumatic and where good rehabilitation services need to be provided immediately after the accident.

The key is to understand the underlying problems that can take root. Early intervention can reduce recovery time, allowing employees to get back to work quicker and minimising the overall cost to the employer.

A range of solutions is available, depending on the extent of the injury. Kynixa offers a telephone triage service which may be suitable for, perhaps, a truck driver who has sustained whiplash injuries and would benefit from a course of physiotherapy, through to programmes for employees who have suffered a catastrophic fall and need a comprehensive, consultant-led multidisciplinary rehabilitation service.

Injured employees can receive vocational and workplace assessments and goal-based solutions can be agreed with both the employer and employee, detailing the individual treatments which will get them there. All parties can agree to these targets and the adversarial type of confrontation, which can often develop in these circumstances, is avoided.

In the context of achieving a return to work, clinical and vocational rehabilitation need to be delivered in tandem. Too often vocational rehabilitation is introduced when clinical rehabilitation is almost over, which is far too late and can have a negative effect on the employee – as well as extend the return to work date or even make a return impossible.

As risk management becomes more of a key driver in insurance companies and the level of premiums, the development of a comprehensive and committed rehabilitation policy has now to become more of a priority for employers.