Food safety is complex and can be costly without the proper injury preventions and interventions.

High Injury Rates Continue

Unfortunately, worker injuries have always been, and continue to be, a major obstacle. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the industry has one of the highest injury and illness rates. Food manufacturing workers are more likely to be fatally injured than workers in private industry as a whole. They are also much more likely to suffer injuries requiring job transfers or restrictions than injuries requiring time away from work.

A recent study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine reveals that food industry workers had a 60 percent higher rate of occupational illness and injury than workers in non-food industries, and a lost-time injury rate more than twice as high. Slips, trips, falls, repetitive motions, lifting heavy objects, and being hit by moving objects were common sources of injury.

A Proven Solution - Onsite Injury Prevention

These are the reasons behind the growing use of on onsite workplace injury prevention programs at food manufacturing and distribution facilities. While all programs produce some results, the very best of the breed have physical therapists (PTs) right in the workplace.

Typically, companies can experience an average return on investment of 3:1 to 5:1 when they institute onsite injury prevention. The average employee’s time away from work can be reduced by as much as 36% through early intervention treatment which eliminates the need to travel to an off-site facility.

Onsite PTs also become familiar, trusted faces to workers and are quickly accepted as full-fledged team members. As workers build relationships with PTs, they become comfortable asking for help and advice early to avoid a small issue turning into something big.  What’s more, PTs will notice when workers are having issues and can walk over to their stations with on-the-spot suggestions. All this can help reduce both the number of claims and the total annual claim cost.

The key is to infuse physical therapists into the food industry supply chain from pre-employment to ergonomic reviews. Best of all, it doesn’t take a huge investment of either finances or real estate to have an onsite clinic. Very little floor space is required; an area as small as 8’ x 10’ will do fine.  Learn more about how an onsite program can help your company with workplace injuries prevention.