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Implementation of Early Intervention Protocol in Australia for ‘High Risk’ Injured Workers is Associated with Fewer Lost Work Days Over 2 Years Than Usual (Stepped) Care

Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation volume 30, pages 93–104 (2020)Cite this article

A Correction to this article was published on 14 August 2019

This article has been updated

Abstract

Purpose To evaluate whether a protocol for early intervention addressing the psychosocial risk factors for delayed return to work in workers with soft tissue injuries would achieve better long-term outcomes than usual (stepped) care. Methods The study used a controlled, non-randomised prospective design to compare two case management approaches. For the intervention condition, workers screened within 1–3 weeks of injury as being at high risk of delayed returned to work by the Örebro Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Questionnaire—short version (ÖMPSQ-SF) were offered psychological assessment and a comprehensive protocol to address the identified obstacles for return to work. Similarly identified injured workers in the control condition were managed under usual (stepped) care arrangements. Results At 2-year follow-up, the mean lost work days for the Intervention group was less than half that of the usual care group, their claim costs were 30% lower, as was the growth trajectory of their costs after 11 months. Conclusions The findings supported the hypothesis that brief psychological risk factor screening, combined with a protocol for active collaboration between key stakeholders to address identified psychological and workplace factors for delayed return to work, can achieve better return on investment than usual (stepped) care.

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Change history

  • 14 August 2019

    The original version of this article unfortunately contained a spelling error in one of the co-authors’s names. The family name of the co-author was incorrectly displayed as “James McCauley” instead of “James McAuley. The original article has been corrected.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a Grant from the NSW Ministry of Health, EML Insurance, and SI-CORP (now icare). We would like to specifically acknowledge the contributions to the study by Karen Munk, Tamara Sprod, Rachel Elmes, Claims managers and staff at EML; Robert Lloyd, Susan Rafty, and Steven Hunt at icare; Michele Murphy and John Roach from NSWHealth, and the CEO’s, General Managers, and RTW coordinators at each participating hospital, as well as the Occupational Physicians and Dr Rob Borland, University of Sydney, who provided independent advice. We also thank the injured workers who voluntarily participated, and the helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this manuscript from Glen Pransky, Ian Cameron, Chris Maher, Alex Collie, and Amanda Williams.

Funding

This study was supported by a Grant from the NSW Ministry of Health, EML Insurance, and SI-CORP (now icare). The Grant funding supported only the work performed by the two project managers (Michael Gleeson, and Raphael Z Pinto).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sydney Medical School – Northern, University of Sydney & Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, NSW, Australia

    M. K. Nicholas, D. S. J. Costa, G. Pearce, M. Gleeson & R. Z. Pinto

  2. Center for Health And Medical Psychology, Department of Law, Psychology, and Social Work, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden

    S. J. Linton

  3. Arthritis Care UK Primary Care Centre, Keele University, Keele, North Staffordshire, UK

    C. J. Main

  4. University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA

    W. S. Shaw

  5. School of Public Health, Concord Clinical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    F. M. Blyth

  6. Neuroscience Research Australia and School of Medical Sciences, University of NSW, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    J. H. McAuley

  7. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Caphri, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    R. J. E. M. Smeets

  8. CIR Revalidatie, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    R. J. E. M. Smeets

  9. Injury Management Health & Safety Branch, NSW Fire and Safety, Sydney, Australia

    A. McGarity

Authors
  1. M. K. Nicholas
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  2. D. S. J. Costa
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  6. G. Pearce
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  7. M. Gleeson
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  10. J. H. McAuley
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  11. R. J. E. M. Smeets
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  12. A. McGarity
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. K. Nicholas.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

The study was approved by the Sydney Local Health District Human Research Ethics Committee at Concord Hospital (17/06/2013), and the Human Research Ethics Committees of each participating hospital. The study was registered prospectively with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (# ACTRN12613000847718). The system regulator, WorkCover(NSW), also gave its written approval for the protocol employed in the study.

Additional information

We would like to dedicate this paper to the memory of Dr Garry Pearce who played a critical role in the establishment and conduct of the study but died before the paper was completed.

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The original version of this article was revised: The typo in the co-author name has been corrected.

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Nicholas, M.K., Costa, D.S.J., Linton, S.J. et al. Implementation of Early Intervention Protocol in Australia for ‘High Risk’ Injured Workers is Associated with Fewer Lost Work Days Over 2 Years Than Usual (Stepped) Care. J Occup Rehabil 30, 93–104 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-019-09849-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-019-09849-y

Keywords

  • Screening
  • Psychosocial factors
  • Workers’ compensation
  • Work injury
  • Early intervention