NU Online News Service, June 26, 1:30 p.m. EDT
Reed Group, a return-to-work information provider, said it has developed a new model to predict how soon an injured employee will return to work.
The Westminster Colo.-based firm said it is offering MDGuidelines.com with a next-generation Predictive Disability Durations tool.
In addition to helping stakeholders in the return-to-work equation better predict leave-of-absence durations, the firm said the model will indicate where to focus return-to-work resources.
As an example of how the tool might be employed, the company put forth a scenario where two grocery checkout clerks, a 28-year-old female triathlete and a 53-year-old male with diabetes, each break an ankle on the same day.
With two such identical injuries, the company said the injury evaluation questions to be answered are which employee will return to work sooner and what can be done to help speed recovery for either or both?
A spokesperson for the company, Tamara Greenleaf, said that, all other things being equal, the triathlete would return to work first, because diabetes is a substantial extender of recovery times. Also, she noted, triathletes tend to have an exceptionally strong will to continue moving forward, no matter what.
Reed's announcement said many factors can influence recovery times, but until now, return-to-work guidelines have been based only on the primary medical condition.
The firm said that closely predicting return-to-work durations for disability, workers' comp, and other leaves of absence is a challenge for employers, insurers, third-party administrators, healthcare practitioners and even the patients themselves.
Dr. Jon Seymou, president, Guidelines for Reed Group, called the Predictive Disability Durations tool "a paradigm shift in the approach to absence management. It will allow everyone to do a better job of getting employees back to their healthy, productive endeavors, and it can help generate healthcare cost savings by giving physicians and case managers more useful, actionable information."
He added that the new tool will be valuable to healthcare practitioners of all kinds, especially occupational physicians, nurses and case managers. "By comparing a realistic assessment of actual outcomes with an idealized or 'optimum' recovery, we provide caregivers with specific goals for returning the employee to work," he said. "We also show all the participants how dramatic the cost savings can be if proper human intervention is maintained."
Dr. Presley Reed, Reed Group chairman, explained that the predictive modeling statistical tool "is powered by data from millions of cases. As with other Reed Group tools, this predictive model is only as good as its user.
Calculated duration figures provided to users via this online calculator consider the normative data, together with the individual's medical condition (and a co-existing condition) plus patient age, and gender, but cannot take into account all the variables of every specific case.
"Application of these figures should not replace the treating physician's judgment regarding actual recovery periods for an individual case, nor interfere with the doctor/patient relationship. The values produced by this tool can provide valuable insight into reasonable recovery periods so that discussions among case professionals can be more constructive and targeted."
A demonstration of the new Predictive Disability Durations tool and a free 30-day trial of MDGuidelines are available by contacting John Nelson, at 866-889-4449 or jnelson@reedgroup.com .
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