Joint, muscle, and bone pain, also known as musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), are your #1 healthcare expense. They surpass the costs you pay towards heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic conditions.  

 MSDs cost over $300 billion annually. And a significant portion of this cost is spent treating chronic conditions, which include osteoarthritis and injuries over 12 weeks old. There are direct costs of MSDs- including insurance and treatment costs. But there are indirect costs to your business: 

  • Lost productivity 
  • Short- and long-term disability 
  • Working while in pain, leading to errors  
  • Workers’ comp 
  • Employee turnover and retention 

 

MSDs aren’t going away, and, with rising insurance costs, they aren’t getting any cheaper. So, how do we combat them? 

The current trend is to look to preventative care. Preventative care is a new buzzword that has invaded the healthcare space. There are new studies happening now to prevent those typical chronic conditions. But, when we are talking about preventative MSK care, there are 3 drawbacks employers need to be aware of: 

One-size-fits-all approaches 

Every employee will have individual needs. They move in ways unique to them- even if they are performing the same tasks as their coworkers. While there are global problems that can be addressed, there are instances where expert advice will differ from employee to employee. One employee can experience low back pain from sitting all day while another experiences wrist pain. And they could have identical desk ergonomics.  

Lack of employee engagement 

Some MSK “solutions” are free unless an employee utilizes it. Then, it costs you money. This may lead to a lack of incentive from you, the employer, to push these solutions, which, in turn, can lead to low engagement. For a solution to actually be a solution, a majority of your employees need to engage with the MSK experts.  

Not looking at the whole picture   

No one can prevent injury entirely. There could be absolutely perfect circumstances at work, desk ergonomics optimized, lifting techniques corrected, and injuries can still occur. They might not happen at work, but they can happen. What happens then? Does this employee’s care fall through the cracks? 

What about the employees who already have pain when the preventative plan is implemented? Do they get seen? 

It’s absolutely vital to have a comprehensive program that addresses chronic conditions and new injuries while also intervening early to reduce the risk of new pain. Prevention is a nice idea, but it’s not practical.   

Solveglobal is the only comprehensive solution to your employees’ pain. They are in pain, and focusing solely on prevention will not solve it. Your workforce deserves better, and your bottom line demands it. Solveglobal.com