Ergonomic Articles & News : BIONOMIC™ INJURY PREVENTION TIPS FOR YOU AND YOUR EMPLOYEES

Press Release

The 5th Annual Eastern Ergonomic Conference was recently held in Boston, MA.

A presentation was given by Dennis Downing, President of and Carlton Jacobson, CFO of Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital. Their session focused on a case study regarding the reduction of workers' comp costs related to sprain/strain injuries.

"Corporate America is becoming more and more aware of the tremendous savings potential of aggressive and practical workplace injury prevention strategies," says Downing.

In 2000, Mr. Carlton, CFO of Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital was experiencing a significant loss of revenue as a result of preventable and needless injuries. Moreover, the lost time due to these injuries caused production and operational issues that were contrary to optimum efficiency.

Based on a referral by the hospital's workers' comp carrier at the time, Mr. Jacobson partnered with Future Industrial Technologies, Inc. (F.I.T.) of Santa Barbara, CA to solve the hospital's workers' comp concerns. It was postulated that if sprain/strain injuries could be prevented workers' comp costs would be dramatically reduced.

F.I.T. is the largest injury prevention training organization in North America and focuses exclusively on the prevention of workplace musculoskeletal disorders.

The combination of ergonomics, biomechanics, stretching, behavioral sciences and breakthroughs in how to train physical behaviors, has been coined Bionomics^TM and is the basis of case studies.

The Bionomics^TM programs used at the hospital were Backsafe® and Sittingsafe®. This practical training was delivered to each employee of the hospital. The training had a unique and surprising result. Employees truly enjoyed the training and saw it as something the hospital did specifically for their well being, for their benefit.

"We didn't invent biomechanics, ergonomics or stretching. We did, however, get pretty clever in how to teach this information so that employee populations of all descriptions would embrace the information and above all else apply it in activities of their daily lives. No one enjoys pain, thus are motivated to learn how to avert it, if it is presented properly." Mr. Downing says.

"Training is only as good as it is applied. Getting 100% on a written test is worthless. Workers' comp savings are directly related to how well employees change their daily physical behavior so they become more responsible for their own well-being", continued Downing.

Implementation and reinforcement measures were created for the hospitals that were designed to work within the hospitals' existing safety culture and to improve it. A safety culture perpetuated by employees versus management mandate is much more effective.

F.I.T. also assisted the hospital's clinical staff to utilize patient lifting devices whenever possible. Says Mr. Carlton, "Nobody wants to be in pain or discomfort. F.I.T. is paving the way that will make a difference in society one employee/one company at a time. I know because it has worked at every hospital and we are reaping the results."

Mr. Carlton's presentation at the Eastern Ergonomic Conference included statistics showing a dramatic reduction in workers' comp costs per FTE (full time employee). In 2000 the year before F.I.T.'s involvement, costs were measured in thousands of dollars per employee. In 2005 the costs have plummeted to just $136.00 per FTE. Now this is doing something about workers' comp and for the employees.

Mr. Carlton's decision to invest a small percentage of his workers' comp budget into F.I.T.'s pre-injury strategies has been rewarded many times over and has helped the hospital to regain control of their workers' comp program.

Today, public and private companies alike are seeing the tremendous savings potential when back injuries, carpal tunnel and other sprain/strains are averted.

It's just common sense to "Prevent tomorrow's injuries today."

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About Future Industrial Technologies // FIT offers workplace safety and ergonomics training programs. Backsafe® teaches employees how to perform their specific job tasks in a manner that is biomechanically correct. Sittingsafe® teaches office employees how to adapt their existing workstations so they are ergonomically correct. These injury prevention programs make your workplace safer and are proven to reduce injuries and worker compensation insurance costs.

For more information contact Dennis Downing at:
Future Industrial Technologies, Inc.
4930 Cervato Way | Santa Barbara, CA 93111
Tel (800) 775-2225 | Fax (805) 967-2487
Email: info@backsafe.com | Website: http://www.backsafe.com