According to a white paper released by One Call, a worker who suffers a work injury that leads to an amputation of their upper limb who experiences delays in treatments, fittings or rehabilitation may never return to work or may suffer a psychological injury.

Data suggests that 18 percent of those with an upper limb amputation never go back to employment, and if they do they do so after a long period of time. The median value of time away from work was 172 days, almost six months. The pace at which a worker moves through the recovery period has a significant impact on their ability to return to work. Treatment referrals and authorization may slow prosthetic fitting and lead to poor rehabilitation outcomes.

Complications like infection, poor activity, pain management, etc., can add four to eight weeks of recovery time. It also takes time for a worker to come to terms with the loss of limb and psychological factors could impact an injured worker, so grief resolution and coping strategies are important in the recovery process.

Fitting injured workers within the first 30 days after they are released and allowing them to participate in the selection of the device will have a positive influence on patient acceptance. When carriers delay the process or make a decision without the worker this increases the risk of rejection.

Establishing a projected recovery path at the onset of the injury, with established goals and timeframes is important to workers. If the injured worker can start to see healing potential and begin to gain a positive outlook, that can go a long way in recovering.

Read the white paper here.