A written return to work policy halved time off
A regional acute care hospital system was averaging 19.4 days off after a work related injury, with no consistent policy governing what happened after the report.
19.4 → 10.9
days off
Employer
Niagara Health
Sector
Health care
Scale
More than 4,800 workers
Period
2012 to 2015
What they did
A return to work and accommodation policy built on the Institute for Work & Health Seven Principles: early contact with the worker, supervisor integration, manager training, and disability case management.
What was measured
Before the policy
19.4 days
Average days off after a work related injury, before the policy
After the policy
10.9 days
Average days off after the return to work policy
Against 29 peer hospitals
45% improvement
Improvement against a peer group of 29 hospitals, which improved 25%
What this means for your site
The gain came from removing the wait, not from treating harder. Early contact is the mechanism. Objective capacity data makes that first contact useful instead of procedural: it tells the supervisor what the worker can actually do on day one.
Measure yours.
Every result on this page started with an employer who decided to count something. We will help you count the right thing.
