Our Ancillaries: The Rehab & Occupational Medicine Center
The Rehab & Occupational Medicine Center
Helping You Perform Better at Work, Sports, and Leisure …
Through Quality Rehab
A painful orthopaedic injury or chronic condition can interfere with your ability to work … or to enjoy your favorite activities. The gradual onset of muscle, joint, spine, nerve, and tendon disorders is often associated with a number of work- and non-work related risk factors. These include physical demands and repetitive motions on the job, as well as posture, body dimensions, nutrition, and heredity. Appropriate work and lifestyle changes have been shown to help control these risk factors and reduce the incidence, severity, and costs associated with musculoskeletal injuries and illness.
The Rehab & Occupational Medicine Center of Southern Bone & Joint Specialists offers complete rehabilitation services at a fully equipped facility. Our highly skilled team of orthopedists and specialized physical therapists has designed a unique and comprehensive system of recovery that is based on the highest quality rehabilitative care and occupational medicine services. The goal of the Center is to return individuals to optimal performance at work, sports, and leisure activities through quality rehab that is cost-effective for both the patient and the healthcare payer.
Who Needs Occupational Medicine services?
Occupational Medicine services are not limited to worker’s comp cases or to individuals accidentally injured on the job. Basically, anyone who has an orthopaedic condition or injury that affects his or her ability to function at work…or away from work…could benefit from the specialized Occupational Medicine services provided at our Center. This is true whether your musculoskeletal pain and/or disability is due to:
An acute, or sudden, injury
A recurring, or chronic, problem
A condition or injury that occurred on the job, or as a result of it
A condition or injury that occurred outside of work, such as a sports injury or arthritis
The goal in all cases is to get you fully functioning and back to work and your favorite activities as soon as possible.
When Do You Need Our Services?
When injury strikes…we respond immediately, even in the middle of the night if necessary. Physical and financial outcomes with musculoskeletal injuries are directly related to how early they are detected and how early and aggressively they are managed with physical therapy. We arrange for you to see the appropriate medical specialist as soon as possible for a diagnostic work-up, and then splint you or initiate physical therapy as needed.
When orthopaedic surgery is needed…we schedule the operating room and coordinate and help you through the immediate post-surgical recovery process. Afterwards, we design an extended, individualized rehab program and continue to work with you until your return to full physical function at home and at work. Elements of our post-surgical rehab include:
Stretching and strength-building exercises
Protective postures
Graduated walking program
Pool therapy
Return-to-work and leisure testing
Recommendations to physicians
When chronic orthopaedic pain recurs…we conduct a thorough investigation of potential organic and non-organic causes, including an evaluation of your work environment. Through physical therapy and training, we help you to regain full physical function and to be more productive on the job in the future.
How Do We Benefit Employees and Employers?
One of our key focuses is employee health. When an orthopaedic injury or condition interferes with work capability, our Occupational Medicine team understands the perspectives of the patient, physician, employer, insurance representative, and nurse case manager—and interfaces to address their needs through effective communication and timely coordination of services.
The foundation of our effectiveness is the relationship-based care we provide to local employers and their employees. We know their personalities, their jobs, and the changes in their industry. We match the skills of specific doctors and therapists to individual patients and arrange for treatment to begin as quickly as possible. We also help workers obtain and complete the proper work release forms, and, when the situation allows, we arrange for alternate temporary job assignments as they regain their function and strength.
What Occupational Services Do We Provide?
The Rehab & Occupational Medicine Center at Southern Bone & Joint Specialists provides a full array of specialized assessment and training tools, including realistic work simulation testing and rehabilitation. All are highly standardized and objective and eliminate the guesswork when determining if a person is ready to resume certain work or occupational tasks. Some of our key occupational medicine services include:
Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE): We conduct a quantitative assessment of an individual’s ability to meet the physical demands and the worker trait factors (as defined by the U.S. Department of Labor) for other available jobs, including objective monitoring of the injured body part for evidence of any problems.
Fitness for Duty: We clinically measure an individual’s ability to perform a specific job function. This is not as comprehensive an evaluation as the FCE in terms of pain assessment or behavioral screening.
Work Return Program (Work Simulation/Hardening): We design a customized, comprehensive rehab program to help the individual achieve specific job performance goals. Components of the rehab program address cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, strength, body mechanics, and worker traits.
Work Conditioning: We coordinate a program of progressive activities, including broadly defined work demands and basic job simulations, to physically and mentally recondition the individual to return to work.
Modified Work Duty: We communicate with the individual and his or her employer to modify job requirements based on the recovering worker’s limited functional capacity.
Job Site Analysis: We conduct a detailed analysis of the work environment and of critical work demands required to perform a given job.
Impairment/Disability Evaluation: We clinically measure any permanent loss of motion, nerve function, strength, or other bodily functions.
Performance Back School: We provide individualized training for any diagnosed back problem, addressing…and simulating…work, home, and leisure activities. This includes guidelines for stress management, nutrition, and post-surgical exercise and fitness.
Randall Building