Southern Therapy Services, Inc. offers a coordinated approach to return injured workers back to their jobs quickly and safely through Industrial Rehabilitation. Our staff is composed of physical and occupational therapists, who are specially trained to perform evaluations, treatment, and computerized testing of industrial injuries. Our therapists work together with the physician and employer to rehabilitate the injured worker.
Functional Capacity Assessments
Functional capacity assessments (FCAs) have become part of practice in work injury prevention and rehabilitation. These tools are supposed to define an individual's functional abilities or limitations in the context of safe, productive work tasks. A series of test activities is usually administered to measure whether an individual has the ability to meet the required job demands. Ideally, FCAs are used following an injury or illness to assist with cost-effective vocational rehabilitation.
What Can I Expect?
This evaluation is designed to help determine a person's ability to safely function in a work environment, reducing risk of re-injury. Strength, flexibility and capacity to perform work tasks, such as lifting, carrying, typing, computer work, kneeling and squatting are assessed. In this way the client and industrial rehabilitation team can determine an individual's current abilities and develop an appropriate treatment plan to facilitate safe return to work.
Additional Industrial Services Available:
Job Ergonomic Analysis
An Ergonomic Analysis consists of a qualified Southern Therapy Services, Inc. representative visiting the job site to perform hands-on evaluations of physical requirements of employees. This may include filming workers, performing job tasks, photographing particular body positions and equipment used to perform tasks, physically measuring/ weighing objects to make recommendations that could possibly alleviate cumulative trauma and prevent injuries on the job site.
The Job Ergonomic Analysis report will identify the specific body motions, postures, and external risk factors that lead to specific musculoskeletal stresses. The corrective recommendations will suggest improvements in the workplace design, workplace procedure, improvements in how the workers use their bodies to perform job tasks, and procedures that facilitate greater repair and recovery of the working human body.
Work Conditioning
Work Conditioning is a gradual progression of functional activities that relate to the critical demands of individual job tasks. Work Conditioning includes job specific activities, strengthening, lifting, pushing/pulling, carrying, and other repetitive activities. These activities are done in conjunction with postural training, body mechanics, and stress reduction techniques for various jobs.
Computerized Upper Extremity Testing (BTE)
The BTE Work simulator bridges the gap between therapy and the workplace by assessing strength and endurance in functional activities necessary for industrial jobs. By evaluating the work produced by an injured hand, wrist, elbow or shoulder and comparing it to the non-injured extremity, we can obtain the percent of disability, performance, consistency, and patient effort.
Educational Programs
We offer Educational Programs such as back schools, carpal tunnel syndrome schools, and various other programs to aid in the prevention of work related injuries. These programs involve information regarding anatomy, body mechanics, general exercise, stress reduction, and common injuries. Emphasis is placed on the participant being responsible for his or her own welfare. These programs have proven to be 70% effective in the reduction of on-the-job injuries in industries utilizing these services.
Wellness Programs
The quickest and most effective way of treating industrial injuries is through prevention. Southern Therapy Services, Inc. can offer each industry a wellness program that is tailored to your industry's needs. This program includes individualized exercise instruction, nutrition and diet information, muscular strength, endurance and flexibility, cardiovascular fitness, and body composition measurements. Each employee will be provided with a motivating and goal oriented program that will increase their level of physical fitness and reduce the incidence of work related injuries.
Pre/Post-Offer Testing
The University of Michigan states that 10% of the existing workforce is not capable of safely performing their jobs. 70% of all injuries occur within the same 10%. Pre/Post Offer Testing detects employees who have pre-existing conditions and/or are unable to perform relevant job specific tasks. If an applicant is hired and through the course of his/her employment suffers an on the job injury, the information obtained with this test is then utilized to compare the current status with his/her initial status. This results in quantifying legitimate and disqualifying fraudulent injuries.
