2022 Bureau of Workers' Compensation Medical and Health Symposium

This conference has already taken place.

Ohio BWC has sponsored the Medical and Health Symposium (MHS) since 2015 and continues to grow, both in attendance and programming. For 2022, BWC is building upon its past successes by offering additional continuing medical education (CME) and continuing education (CE) sessions to health care professionals geared toward enhancing their knowledge in evidence-based practices, while learning from nationwide subject matter experts (SME) across various fields. As health care changes, BWC intends to provide awareness and increase the health care professional’s knowledge in areas identified as practice gaps specific to health care industry and workers’ compensation, including billing and reimbursement and medico-legal terminology, improving the patient experience, and minimizing administrative burdens or delays in patient care. Health care professionals who gain knowledge and experience in dealing with claims filed within a workers’ compensation system can impact the trajectory of a claim with understanding the causal relationship associated with the injury, necessary evidence required to support the injured workers’ claim, and understanding of proper billing and coding procedures (de Almeida, 2021). 

Over the course of 2022, the MHS Planning Committee has identified additional professional practice gaps and intends to address these gaps throughout this educational experience. One of those practice gaps include musculoskeletal (MSK) injuries, especially shoulder and knee. Treatment of MSK injuries continue to be a significant cost driver in health care expenditures and contribute to absenteeism and disability. Recent studies have shown MSK injuries accounted for over 65 million health care visits across the United States with a cost of over 176 billion dollars (Qaseem et al., 2020). Furthermore, professional gaps in management of MSK injuries and return-to-work (RTW) strategies have been identified where attendees will have the opportunity to learn how to coordinate and collaborate with other health care professionals and engage injured workers in their recovery with informed decision-making throughout the continuum of care. Problematic shoulder conditions such as rotator cuff disease often includes significant pain and dysfunction and is noted for being one of the costliest health related conditions, therefore, physicians and patients must consider results of both non-surgical and surgical treatments with informed decision-making, mitigating further risk of unnecessary surgery or disability (Cederqvist et al., 2021). In addition to this, attendees will understand the impact lost-time claims have on both the injured worker and workers’ compensation system by listening to innovative approaches which mitigate the risk of delayed recovery and RTW. Studies have demonstrated positive outcomes in reducing lost time claims by implementing a multi-pronged intervention strategy which includes modifying job duties or demands, service coordination, and educating workers in adopting a healthier lifestyle, both physical and mental (Cullen et al., 2018).
Often, workers across various industries are expected to endure swings in environmental conditions, including chemical or temperature, potentially predisposing them to occupational hazards or injuries. This has been one area health care professionals can gain additional knowledge and factors that may contribute to occupational injuries or delayed recovery due to a lack of coordinated and early intervention strategies. Occupational and environmental hazards such as extreme temperature conditions, loud noises, or exposure to chemicals can negatively impact a workers’ performance which can lead to a workplace injury, especially among migrant workers who are more at risk due to health care disparities and cultural barriers (Moyce & Schenker, 2018).

Another practice gap that has been identified involves how practitioners deal with ocular anomalies and approach opportunities to incorporate innovative technologies to discover neurodegenerative disorders which may be detected through thorough evaluation and management of the ophthalmic system. With optical examinations, ocular manifestations, including neurodegenerative disorders, and certain anomalies may be detected early on, which would require additional education and training of primary eye care professionals, potentially paving the way for better outcomes in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of these diseases (Colligris et al., 2018). Also, management of catastrophic injuries and post-injury effects, including physical and mental, is an area identified where practitioners can learn about additional opportunities to effectively manage these types of conditions and improve the patient’s quality of life. Studies have shown positive effects in post-traumatic growth among individuals with spinal cord injuries when caregivers and rehabilitation specialists engage individuals in maintaining a positive attitude and encourage autonomy and participation in decision-making with their daily activities (Byra, 2021).

These MHS sessions attempt to focus on the delivery of medically appropriate and necessary health care services at the right time and setting, while promoting safe, quality, cost-effective care in either private or public health care delivery systems, including workers’ compensation. Therefore, additional practice gaps identified include opportunities for health care providers to learn when to consider alternative treatments when managing patients’ conditions as well as exploring innovative diagnostic tools such as pharmacogenomics, which may enhance treatment approaches to improve outcomes. Studies have shown non-pharmacological approaches such as physical therapy improve outcomes among chronic MSK injuries and evidence further suggests these types of alternative approaches positively impact duration of disability among certain groups of patients (Kinney et al., 2018). Our attendees can gain further appreciation of genetic testing and impacts this may have on improving outcomes among populations by implementing this across key demographics. By eliminating barriers and perceived attitudes toward genetic testing, patients can benefit from innovative technologies throughout the continuum of care, such as pharmacogenomics, which improve the efficacy of prescription drug utilization while mitigating risks of adverse events due to a patient’s response (Rahma et al., 2020). 

 The health care industry intends for practitioners to adopt measures in practice to produce positive outcomes and practice gaps have been identified where health care professionals are late adopters of evidence-based medicine and incorporating guidelines into their decision-making throughout the organization’s health care delivery model. Evidence-based guidelines seek to minimize variation in care and optimize the performance and skills among health care professionals, intending to positively impact health care outcomes, including quality, cost-efficiencies, and safety (Teede et al., 2018). 
Finally, as the pandemic remains both fluid and dynamic, our planning committee felt it was prudent to address the impacts of COVID-19 across the health care industry and the consequences it may have across workers’ compensation systems. Clinicians must consider early intervention strategies that identify and manage patients suffering from COVID-19, especially among those who have been diagnosed with comorbidities or chronic diseases which can further complicate a patient’s condition or lead to poor outcomes (Cevik et al., 2020). 

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