“As a partner/owner at B&B Contracting we decided it was time to look at and address our overall costs related to duration of claims and look at improvements to our safety culture. Stan Weismiller of Winvan Paving connected me with Vernita Hsu, BCCSA’s injury management coordinator, and RSA, Jeff Lyth, who met with me to review our existing program. Together we came up with a roadmap for injury management and put a safety committee in place. Now everybody has their 10 minute tailgate meeting in the morning. It’s a safer culture. Near miss tracking is now part of our program and man days lost has significantly reduced because we have a great back to work program. It has been a huge success.” - Steve Stew, B&B ContractingWhat is Injury Management?
Injury management is a co-ordinated and managed process consisting of activities and procedures to facilitate a timely, safe, and durable return to work for injured workers. It includes treatment of the injury, rehabilitation back to work, and management of the compensation claim. Injury management is based on the philosophy that many injured workers can safely perform productive work during their period of recovery and remaining connected to the workplace is a vital part of recovery.
The success of any injury management program depends on (a) actively managing incidents, (b) maintaining open communication between all stakeholders, and (c) providing temporary suitable duties (modified and/or alternate) as necessary, that are within the injured worker’s medical restrictions, physical limitations, and abilities.
Early intervention is essential to both the worker’s recovery and the cost effective management of the claim. An immediate planned response can be initiated to determine if the worker is capable of staying at work performing their regular pre-injury duties, modified duties, or alternate duties while the injury heals.
If the worker does require time away from the workplace, an effective program will help the worker return to meaningful, productive, and safe work as early and safe as possible.
Benefits of Injury Management
- Lowers claim costs by reducing the number and duration of time loss injuries, which has a positive influence on Experience Rating and WorkSafeBC premiums
- Minimizes downtime and lost productivity
- Contributes to good employer/employee relations
- Ensures fair and consistent treatment of all injured workers
- Contributes to a quicker and more complete recovery
- Helps workers stay attached to the workplace and maintain relations with co-workers, minimizing disruption to worker’s normal routine
- Helps workers avoid the negative effects of long-term absences
- Reduces the cost of training replacement workers
- Enables treatment and management of injuries from time of occurrence
- Helps facilitate communication between all parties