As a workers’ compensation professional, the last thing you want is repeat injuries. These injuries are expensive. They are avoidable. And no employer wants to see their people get hurt. But what if you didn’t care? Let’s take a tongue-in-cheek look at how to make sure your injured worker gets reinjured.

1. Send them to a generic clinic.

That way, they can get the same physical therapy as everyone else. They can attend sessions along with stroke victims and people with sports injuries. After all, their provider is a generalist. They can treat anyone, right?

2. Don’t communicate.

Avoid talking to your injured worker. Leave the claims process to the adjuster. Leave the plan of care and treatment to your employee’s doctor. Don’t share their job description with their doctor or physical therapist (PT). Don’t ask for progress reports from the PT. You’ll know your employee is “better” when he shows up for work again. He’ll be ready to do his job exactly like before – when he injured himself.

3. Pressure your worker to return to full duty before he or she has recovered.

Threaten them with losing their job, if you have to, but get them back to work. Refuse to modify their assignment with lighter tasks. Refuse to make accommodations that could help them do their job without straining themselves further.

Don’t be this person.

Of course you don’t want any worker to reinjure herself. That’s a bad outcome for everyone. What you really want is faster, more effective recovery for every injured worker. Recovery that lasts because workers return knowing how to work safer. You can accomplish that by switching to on-site physical therapy for your workers’ comp program.

On-site physical therapy helps prevent repeat injuries in many ways:

• Replaces lack of communication with regular progress reports and real-time updates on each worker’s condition.
• Individual, job-specific therapy focuses on building strength and range of motion relevant to the essential tasks of that employee’s job.
• The physical therapist doesn’t only help your worker heal, they teach them how to move properly in the future to avoid re-injury.
• With therapy sessions at the worksite, you can check in yourself to see how things are going.
• PhysNet physical therapists are specialists, working only with injured workers.
• On-site physical therapy takes place at your worker’s jobsite. It’s easier for your worker to keep their appointments, because they don’t have to travel to an off-site clinic.
• Each hour-long session is devoted strictly to that one injured worker only. They don’t have to share the therapist with others. The result? Your worker gets better faster. They can return to work sooner.
• With on-site physical therapy, they return to work fully fit for duty more often.

You can do even better.

Switching to on-site physical therapy can improve your workers’ comp program in multiple ways. You can take it one step further, by adding post-offer employment testing to your hiring process. POET helps you avoid hiring candidates who are not capable of safely performing a job’s essential tasks.