Rehab, Recovery, Treatment VS. Lawyers and Insurance and Claims

Any human resources director with some time in the field has experienced a problem similar to this.

How you handled it varies.

Would it not be nice to have something in your employee folder to help protect you against litigation? Would it not be nice to have something to protect your work friend and your business from further issues?

Take a moment and put yourself in the place of Jen, your friend of 12 years and fellow employee. You have had dinners at Jen’s house and her family have come to pool parties at your house. For a moment, put yourself in Jen’s shoes.

You are now Jen. You are the mother of three awesome children who are 5, 8 and 10 years old. You and your husband have been married almost 13 years and have lived in the same house you first purchased together after you both landed your “real adult jobs” 12 years ago upon graduating from Eastern Carolina University. You live in Cary, North Carolina, and have worked for the same news company for 12 years. What started out as a camera person position became a producer position with hard work, continued education and grit.

In reality, you have really produced a great life. Your finances are in order, your children are great and your relationship with your husband is phenomenal! You have supportive friends. You do yoga three days a week. You have accomplished so much and have a great deal to be proud of.

As the more organized and planning oriented of the pair, you have taken on the role of family bill payer, retirement planning and all of the money that it takes to make the household run like it should. You are prepared and you make good decisions and stick to a budget that is strict, yet allows you to take family vacations to the Smoky Mountains or the occasional trip to see family across the state.

In your eyes, life seems ordinary. Sometimes the most interesting thing in your week is deciding what to add to the grocery app for Rick, your husband, to grab on the way home from his job with the city.

After a weekend with friends over for dinner and a Sunday of preparing for the week, you go into work to find that Amy, your go-to camera person is sick and there is a story of a semi-crash on I-40 that your station has to cover. With other teams already in the field, you tell the reporter that you will operate the camera and you both jump into the van and take off to the scene of the crash.

Upon arrival, you see the devastation of a poultry truck that had overturned with chickens running all over the interstate and people running after them. Traffic is blocked in both directions, it is utter chaos, though incredibly funny. You feel the rush of the action by being behind the camera for the first time in a few years! It feels phenomenal to be back in the field!

After the reporter finishes her story, you are packing up the camera and gear while laughing about the scene when all of a sudden you drop to your knees in wrenching pain.

It is your back. And it is not good. Not at all.

Your reporter tries to help you up, but no matter how you try, there is no comfortable way to manage to stand. Your now blood stained right kneecap is bleeding through slacks as your reporter puts the camera in the van and drives it closer for you to try and get in.

As if your back being in pain isn’t bad enough, your pride has taken a hit as you have two lanes of traffic, three State Troopers, and a very disoriented truck driver watching you attempt to get into the passenger seat of the van.

The entire ride back to the station you can hardly sit still, it hurts to move at all. You can literally feel each bump in the road, every manhole cover hit and every small object you can imagine.

Casey, the station manager tells you that you need to go to the Emergency Room and offers to drive you there. You text Rick and he replies he will meet you there.

Casey gets the hospital intake nurse to wheel you into the bright bleach smelling waiting room. Rick starts filling out your paperwork and all you can think is “How am I going to be on my feet all day at work and do things that need done around the house with my back like this?”

Dr. Clark, a friend of the family, comes into the ER room and tells you that you will need an X-Ray to determine what is going on with your back.

After the X-Ray, Eric tells you that you have herniated a disk, and that it appears you will need to have a minor surgery to repair it, then about 6 weeks of physical therapy to get back on track.

Eric refers you to the hospital’s neurosurgeon who does the surgery two days later. You can walk again, and you do feel better despite some soreness. You have a set appointment schedule for physical therapy and you return to your workplace to develop the plan for recovery while working.

Your company HR Director explains the policies and how you will need to follow doctor guidelines and keep them updated on what the physical therapists say and when you are cleared for full-duty. In the meantime, you are to be in a seated position while you produce the news. Not ideal, but, it is what it is.

After 6 weeks of physical therapy, you are deemed ready to return to work on regular duty. Your back still gives you a little bit of pain now and again, but nothing that a little ibuprofen won’t take care of.

You get back to work and everything is going well. You have been on the job two weeks on your feet and are back to full-strength at home and life resumes to normal.

Until that stupid pen rolled off your clipboard and you bent over at the waist to pick it up, and again, your back drops you to your knees.

The excruciating pain comes shooting into your lower back and now down your right backside and your leg.

How could this happen?

Physical Capacity Profile (PCP) can answer how it may have been avoided. But first, we would like to point out an important part of your story, Jen. You know how it took a machine to determine what was wrong? The X-Ray? The same is true in post-offer employment testing.

You need a machine to know if your potential employee has the strength and physical fitness to do the job.

You need a machine to know if your potential employee has a pre-existing injury.

You need a machine to know if after an accident, the employee is fit-for-duty and ready to return to work.

So, yes, this may have been avoided!

Had your news company provided a baseline assessment, it is likely you would have been able to acquire the job. After all, you have performed very well for 12 years. However, if they had a PCP baseline test result, they would be able to compare your abilities after the recovery to determine if you were fit-for-duty. Sure, your job title has changed and so have the physical requirements. (Thank goodness you are no longer loading and unloading cameras, cables and equipment.) But, the ability to do your job safely would have been evaluated through a series of tests conducted by the local Urgent Care Center that has the Physical Capacity Profile.

After your 30 minute PCP test, your HR manager would have had your results within 2 minutes. So, by the time you drive back to the station, she would know if you are ready for full-duty, light duty or would have consulted with the company medical provider to determine what status you need placed on. Or, if more physical therapy was needed.

You could have only had to suffer once. Wasn’t that enough?

Isn’t that enough pain for your company too, having to deal with the insurance, lawyers, and medical teams and trying to do your job while you were gone? Plus, your poor family that is now going to have to step back up and take care of more than their fair share?

Technology evolves for a reason.

The PCP is here to help hire right, the first time and to ensure that if injured, you are fit- for-duty after recovery.

Okay, so you are no longer Jen.

You are Jen’s HR Manager, a Safety Director, an Urgent Care Director or Medical provider, or even upper management at an organization. Perhaps you are a lawyer or insurance agent. Regardless of who you are, don’t you imagine it is time to help prevent problems like this from happening in your organization? Would it not be nice to have something to show that her testing is able to get her fit-for-duty before she returns on full duty?

Don’t you imagine that occupational health is something worth exploring?

Don’t you think you need Jen on her A-game ASAP, for your company’s sake, as well as for her own good? Let’s do something about this!

Click Here to protect your business and your employees.