Lean methodology can reduce downtime for injured workers
Optimizing processes around physical therapy can enhance outcomes and reduce workers’ comp costs.
Lean methodology can speed up an injured worker’s return to the job by pinpointing bottlenecks in the time between an on-the-job accident and the start of physical therapy treatment, according to a study conducted by One Call Senior Director of Continuous Improvement Omar Taha.
According to Planview, Lean methodology is a framework that emphasizes system optimization to reduce waste, or in this case an employee’s time away from work.
The study, which examined injured worker data from clinics in Florida and Pennsylvania, found that eliminating pre-authorization for physical therapy, which results in additional lead time, can improve outcomes and reduce workers’ compensation claim costs.
“Physical therapy plays a significant role in the treatment of most work-related injuries and drives medical and indemnity costs of workers’ compensation claims,” Omar Taha, One Call senior director of continuous improvement and doctoral candidate in systems engineering at The George Washington University, said in a release. “Our findings corroborate that Lean is an effective methodology in identifying and removing administrative inefficiencies from the treatment process.”
Removing pre-authorization processes
Pre-authorization of treatment was found to be the primary “non-value-added activity,” or the most inefficient step in the workers’ comp claim process, because it delays the start of physical therapy, according to Taha.
“Patterns emerged that showed inefficiencies in the information flow between insurance companies, referring care providers and treatment care providers,” Professor Thomas A. Mazzuchi from the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at The George Washington University said in a release. “This negatively impacts the delivery of care for injured workers.”
For example, injured workers in Pennsylvania — where pre-authorization activities have been eliminated— typically start physical therapy fewer than 24 hours after receiving a prescription. Injured workers in Florida, for comparison, require more than five days.
Overall, an injured worker in Florida will need nearly 40 days to complete eight physical therapy sessions, whereas in Pennsylvania the average is fewer than 30 days for the same number of treatments, according to the study.
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