Welcome to today's ON Series session titled
Leadership in rehabilitation and return to work.
The topic and the speaker is brought to you by
the Office of Industrial Relations.
As a Department we are committed to driving
initiatives across the whole scheme that improve safety,
wellbeing and return to work outcomes
for both businesses and workers.
My name is Dalton Langer-Hogan.
I am Coordinator Education and Engagement Services
for the Office of Industrial Relations.
I'm pleased to introduce our Presenter Jeremy Clay
who was awarded for his leadership in
rehabilitation and return to work at the
2016 Safe Work and Return to Work Awards.
Jeremy developed the Injured Worker Pack for the
employers in McNab's supply chain for the injured
workers and doctors, all to assist the stakeholders
with the return to work process.
He has also developed supervisor training including
for subcontractors, a Corrective Actions Report Register
and a job dictionary.
These resources are available to managers,
workers, subcontractors and their employers
and anyone else in McNab's supply chain.
We are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to
share Jeremy's innovative approach to rehabilitation
and return to work processes with our
Queensland stakeholders.
I will now hand over to Jeremy to provide an
insight into his approach to facilitating positive
and sustainable return to work outcomes for his organisation.
Thanks Dalton.
So McNab introduced a really simple system
which was employer neutral. So we engaged local medical
centres so that they could treat our injuries.
We had some roadblocks there.
So not all medical centres have all the facilities to
treat the injuries that we were encountering on our sites.
So for instance some local medical centres wouldn't
take in walk-ins or wouldn't like to see
bleeding patients or conduct say, ECGs if
someone had an electric shock.
So we do have a policy of anyone who does receive an
inadvertent shock would go through an ECG.
So it's important for the worker to feel comfortable
and sometimes they're not so comfortable if they're
sitting in an emergency department waiting for a
test and it may increase their already fragile sort of state.
So by getting local medical centres that understand the
WorkCover system, they have the treatment facilities
available, they do accept walk-ins and you don't need
to make an appointment. It's very important,
especially if you've got a long term project.
If you're a manufacturing business it would be very
smart to get something very close to your
manufacturing business for instance.
So we developed the systems aimed at different
audiences for the worker so they've got the information
they need at hand. They've got a copy of everything that we
give to the doctor for instance and everything
that we give to the supervisor as well.
We developed some information for the supervisors
to assist them to help the worker on their journey.
Not all supervisors have received the
Rehabilitation Coordinator training.
So it's a simple system where they can go through
a checklist and say 'Have I done this?',
'What's the next thing I do?',
'Have I got all the paperwork I need,
especially for the WorkCover claim?'
Also explaining some of the intricacies of the
insurance to the workers as well, explain the claims
process and also overcoming simple roadblocks.
We also developed a job dictionary.
So we spoke to a lot of experienced guys in
workplace rehab, especially in the construction sector.
We analysed what the jobs were, how people sort of
used their bodies in different ways to find out
in a clinical sort of way how much time they spend on
different tasks, different weights for instance,
different body mechanics. So we can focus on what
people can do rather than what they can't do.
So if they've injured a hand for instance, is there
another aspect to their role that they can undertake?
Then we developed a simple training package
for supervisors. So sometimes supervisors need to know
what's in it for them.
So we provided what's in it for them, provided some
information about McNab's success in our
injury management, the savings that we've generated
and so forth, so they can get an understanding why they have
to stop work and assist their worker who may have an injury.
So we learnt a few lessons on the way.
So first up is planning for the worst and hoping for the best.
So engaging good quality medical centres that do provide
good occupational treatments and good communication.
So we did have a situation where on three separate
occasions we had three of our workers who suffered broken
limbs and they were misdiagnosed as soft tissue injuries.
That might have been for the remote location of the
project and the fact that there wasn't an X-Ray close
by but it did show a pattern and we subsequently
changed medical centres to someone who could provide
a bit better clinical support.
Also some local centres would prefer to use
Medicare and may not really know the ins and outs of
workers' compensation and provide things like the
first medical certificate which is different to one
that you go in for a general medical condition
rather than an occupational one.
We treat all workers as if they're our own.
So there may be some situations where we're
finding that subcontractors, employees
may be subcontracted themselves.
So instead of investigating who's responsible the main
thing is to get people the treatment they need and
work out who's responsible afterwards for the ongoing
treatment and care and so forth.
But the initial thing is if someone needs treatment,
they need treatment.
They don't need to know who their employer is immediately.
We also focus on what people can do, not what they can't do.
Sometimes some outcomes, you know, people think
they're doing the right things by limiting people's
work but sometimes it can mask some other issues and
also contribute to secondary illnesses,
especially mental wellbeing.
You find people who get back to their peer support
network actively engage in the workforce again and
they get better quicker.
So there's a lot of research around saying
'good work is very good for you.' So we find that
people who return to work immediately we have a
greater success for their long term employment.
So the Australian College of Physicians say that
people who are off work for extended periods of time
may never get back to work.
Also workers who are too injured to work are
normally too injured to drive.
So there really needs to be a plan for how that worker
is going to get home from their medical treatment.
So if they go there by an ambulance because they're
suffering acute pain, they receive some pain
medication and some other treatment, they might be
ready to go home but they still need to get home.
So make sure that you plan that return journey.
We make it a policy that all injured workers are
accompanied to their first medical appointment.
Also write it down is - consider engaging a
professional to help you detail a job dictionary.
So we developed a job dictionary just in-house
in the first instance and then we sought some professional
help in detailing that in a more clinical way from
an occupational physician.
So that's something that people can do.
They can go and Google that and find out someone
who's local for them.
It helps in having a goal what a good -
someone who is fully able, what they can do.
So it creates this target.
You can say 'Well, this is what you need to do to
fulfil your role and this is where we're going to
rehabilitate you up to.' So that's good to define that in
a more clinical way so the doctors can read that
understanding and then suit their rehabilitation.
Any allied health can use that as well.
It also helps for the supervisor to understand
what they need to make sure that this worker can
actually be supported in their return to work.
Education is extremely important.
So educating your supply chain that no one benefits
from an injury and that there are so many benefits from
just a small investment in rehabilitation and return
to work is - having no plan in the first instance
is not a plan for success.
So if you can do, seek advice from a qualified
return to work coordinator.
If you've got one in your supply chain you can always
leverage off them.
They're usually very helpful for anyone who's
involved in their supply chain.
Not all businesses require them.
So for high risk businesses it's a large turnover of
about $3.5 million, but that changes on a regular
basis according to the legislation.
So we've seen a dramatic reduction in premiums and
it far outweighs any cost of our program.
So when we first initiated our program from just a
standard return to work program that anyone could
get off the shelf and actively participated into
the supply chain we saw a reduction in our own premiums.
So from the industry rate which it was in 2011 to
this year it's going to be one fifth of the industry rate.
So we're saving a dramatic amount of money.
So our five year return on investment is $1.5 million.
So it's a significant amount of money that
we can invest elsewhere in the business.
The amount of money that went into training and
other things is far outweighed by the return
on that better insurance rate.
So in future we're attempting to engage our
supply chain as early as possible, explain the
benefits of good rehabilitation practices
and sharing our job dictionary among other things,
giving them advice when they need it,
assisting their workers to good medical treatment is
of benefit for the entire supply chain, reiterating
that no one benefits when their workers are injured.
Absolutely no one benefits.
Encouraging pre-employment assessment.
So if you use your job dictionary you can really focus
on getting your ergonomic fit right with your workers.
So workers who shouldn't be doing that physical
exertion as high as other people, you can limit your
exposure to workplace injuries in the first place
if you employ right and also select your good
subcontractors as well.
Look, to encourage others I'd say plan for injuries,
plan for the worst but hope for the best.
Find good quality doctors that are in close proximity
to where you're working.
Make sure that they can actually do the treatment
that is usually necessary from the injuries that
you've had in the past, so that they accept walk-ins,
that they know the workers' comp system, that they've
got details of your injury management system so they
can assist you with that rehabilitation and they
provide good care.
So if you notice there's a pattern that's not
befitting the way you want your outcomes to be,
it's always good to take that up with your practice manager.
Jeremy just following up from this point that you've
just made, for people new to rehabilitation and
return to work can you give some practical advice about
how you, they would approach a medical centre
to establish this relationship?
I'd encourage their return to work coordinator to go
to a local medical centre near where their area is operating.
We are in a construction industry, so it would be
close to our construction site but if you're a
manufacturing industry it would be close to where you
manufacture of your delivery company.
You could even get some chains that they do have a
few medical doctors. One of them for instance is
Sonic Health Care. If you Google them you can get
some more information from there.
It's also important to engage with the practice
manager because sometimes good rehabilitation is just
down to the administration and having a really good
relationship with the practice manager,
things like information from the visit like the medical
certificate and other information it makes life
easier if there's a good relationship there.
Just little things like having a look at what
facilities they've got available.
So have a chat to the practice manager and if you
do get to chat with the doctor and explain what
your work is, what your past medical treatment
injuries have been like and what you need services of
generally can help as well.
Look at the results from previous workplace injuries.
If they've been successful then analyse how that's
been successful and if they've been less
successful you could take that information back to
the medical centre and explain that the outcome
wasn't what you expected and suggestions for improvement.
Also I encourage people to write down what their
preferred medical centre is and explain that to people
when they start with your organisation.
If it's a construction site during their site induction,
if it's a manufacturing environment or other
environment just explain when they first start is if
they do have a workplace injury is that they're welcome
to use your preferred doctor and that there's usually a good
relationship between your preferred doctor.
Some doctors will actually come out to your work site
and do some analysis of your job tasks and so forth.
It's usually at a fee but sometimes you can recover
those fees through better rehabilitation practices.
Yeah, so I would encourage people to do that.
Going back to the encouragement I think the
other aspect that you should really focus on is
doing an incident investigation and
considering that all injuries should be prevented,
the best way to have a good outcome with workplace injuries
is not to have injuries in the first instance.
So really learn from your investigation.
Don't immediately point to an issue with a person.
Have a look at the complete system.
It may surprise you what the contributing factors
and the route cause are.
Also engaging with other people, Workplace Health
and Safety do run very good networks,
like join the Facebook group etc.
Thank you Jeremy for sharing your experience and
the success you have achieved with your rehab
and return to work initiatives.
You can also view Jeremy's video on the Queensland
Safe Work and Return to Work Awards website.
We will be providing a link to that website and that
video with this recording.
The Office of Industrial Relations is committed to
sharing knowledge and experiences that encourage
others to consider what innovations they can bring
to the rehabilitation and return to work processes
within their workplaces.
To that end I think today's session is incredibly valuable.
We hope you found this information valuable for
your role within your business and we look
forward to delivering more real life experiences for
you in the future. Thank you.