The impact of social determinants of health on your workforce

Looking at an injured worker holistically and considering his or her overall situation can prevent so-called ‘creeping catastrophic’ claims. (Credit: arka38/Shutterstock)

Getting the best outcomes for injured workers involves much more than just treating the actual injury. Their recoveries depend on a variety of additional factors such as whether they have access to healthy food and clean water, their ability to travel to medical appointments and the extent of support they have.

Increasingly, workers’ compensation payers are finding that these social determinants of health (SDoH) have a significant impact on the healing process and a worker’s ability to return to work. While these issues may not be a direct responsibility of stakeholders, addressing them to whatever extent possible can vastly improve and expedite the process.