Creating & Maintaining a Healthy Workforce with Onsite Care

Sally working with an employee to decrease upper-back and neck tension.

Ensuring the health and safety of employees is more than just a good idea; it’s a strategic necessity. Many companies are moving forward with an onsite presence for healthcare delivery, an expert who provides services with speed and precision.

During National Athletic Training Month, we shine a spotlight on the industrial athletic trainers who address workforce injuries with the latest injury prevention and management techniques, reduce OSHA recordable injuries and generate significant reduction in healthcare costs.

Today, meet Sally Egan, Industrial Rehab Specialist at Advanced Industrial Medicine. Reflecting the speed of the services she provides, she doesn’t waste any time.

“As an onsite provider at several companies and a municipality in Northeastern Wisconsin, it’s my job to help create and maintain healthy environments for employees,” said Egan. “And the best way to do that is to provide quick access to quality care.”

Egan is a veteran of Advanced Industrial Medicine’s rehabilitation team, a group of licensed athletic trainers and physical therapists dedicated to keeping employees healthy, safe, and on the job. Like many of her colleagues from the athletic training world, she began her career in the high school setting, working as the athletic trainer at Shawano High School. Egan did that for nearly a dozen years.

Now dedicated entirely to onsite industrial care, she stresses the similarities between the two environments.

“What we do as industrial athletic trainers is bring the sports medicine model of immediate, consistent care to the workplace,” said Egan. “And we do this at no cost to the employee.”

Which is so important to her clients, everyday people who are just trying to make a living and put food on the table.

Egan understands that concept well.

“I grew up in this area on a very small dairy farm. I know what it's like for a family to live paycheck to paycheck and not be able to get healthcare when you really should, because you just can't afford it,” said Egan. “So being able to provide that service—literally in my hometown—is just an amazing opportunity for me.”

Interesting that the self-described “farm kid” pursued a career in health care. It makes complete sense, though, as she describes it as a simple transition from fixing tractors or boards on a wall to fixing people.

The similarities don’t end there, as Egan quickly points out.

“You have to be adaptable and inventive, because you don't usually have the resources. That's what onsite rehab is. You don't have a lot of equipment, so you have to work with what you have,” she said.

The companies and organizations she works with rely on Egan to deliver services known as “rapid response,” where direct access to care means employees will be seen in 24-48 hours for an evaluation.

That kind of quick care creates the opportunity for an improved healing timeframe, as the onsite provider can swiftly address and manage issues that, if left untreated, could become recordable injuries.

“We can prevent that from occurring,” said Egan. “So you’re keeping the employee healthy and keeping them at their job, and you’re saving the employer money by reducing direct and indirect costs that result from such an injury.”

Once again, Egan leans on her sports medicine background to explain the mindset of an industrial athletic trainer.

“One domain of athletic training is about reactive and emergency care, which in industry is rapid response and OSHA first aid. So we're there for that assessment, and occasionally wound care and emergency care,” said Egan. “For injuries, we’re able to assess and make appropriate decisions if this is something that you can rehab or treat, or make that decision for a proper referral and guide them to where they should go for the best quality and line of care.”

Components of onsite programs can include ergonomic analysis and training, jobsite analysis, testing (post-offer pre-employment, return-to-work, fit-for-duty, etc.), strength and conditioning, work hardening and conditioning, and many others. Programs and services are customizable to meet the needs and desires of each company.

“We collaborate with our clients to ensure they get exactly what they want,” said Egan. “Advanced Industrial does not do the ‘one size fits all’ thing.”

Egan highlights the range of services she can provide if companies so choose. One company, for instance, wanted to offer their office personnel some strategies to improve general wellness. So, every week at the scheduled time, staff members stop what they are doing, grab a chair, and join Egan at the center of the office, where she leads them in fifteen minutes of stretching and body mechanics.

“It’s just a special need that the company felt strongly about, and we can do those types of things,” said Egan. “We individualize services based on the company. I meet with HR every single week at my companies just to keep the lines of communication open. We’re there to prevent health issues as much as possible, so that kind of collaboration ensures their needs are being met.”

Egan also emphasizes the importance of developing relationships and rapport with her employees.

“It’s on me to get out on the floor and make connections,” said Egan. “You need to show them that you're there to know them as a person, not just a patient.”

Forming such bonds requires a level of trust, something Egan says comes naturally when employees get treated right away and feel better. Whether it’s Egan making the rounds on a factory floor or working with a patient who scheduled an appointment in a (usually) small treatment room, the brief interactions are the sources of the best kind of marketing there is: word of mouth.

“One employee will say, ‘Sally has done great things for my shoulder. Go see if she can help you.’ And that keeps my days full,” said Egan.

The small town country girl acknowledged one final similarity between her job as an industrial rehabilitation specialist and her work with high school athletes in a previous life.

“We’re in healthcare for a reason, and that’s to help people. I get to make those personal connections with industry clients just like I did in sports medicine. And the best part is when I get somebody that comes in and says, ‘Thank you so much for helping me. I feel so much better, and I didn't know if I was ever going to feel better.’

“That’s the best part of my job.”

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The Impact of Athletic Trainers in Industrial Medicine