Musculoskeletal disorders wreak havoc on nearly every business in this country. 40% of all work-related injuries are MSDs and millions of employees are affected every single year. The majority of these injuries are in the manufacturing and distribution industries because they require heavy lifting and repetitive motion.

These MSDs are costing their companies a large amount of money — estimates suggest over $50B a year — as well as lower productivity and unhappy employees. A study showed workers lost, on average, between 21 and 32 days away from work.

And outgoing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is concerned about it.

In his last letter to shareholders, he requested the company look further into the problem. He acknowledged Amazon workers do suffer from MSDs with strains and sprains from repetitive motion, overwork, and lifting and moving items from incorrect positions. 

Amazon even launched a program to coach a small group of workers. They focused on ergonomics, stretching, and workplace safety. In one year, they cut injuries by 32% and saw workers time-away-from-work sliced by more than 50%.

Bezos went on to say, in his final shareholder letter, that

"We need to invent solutions to reduce MSDs for new employees, many of whom might be working in a physical role for the first time."

That seemed to be the most fascinating statement in the Amazon letter. They had tried ergonomic coaching and the efforts paid off. Other than rotational scheduling, to prevent overworking muscle groups for too long, some solutions that could be implemented will be exorbitantly expensive. 

Spending huge sums on warehouse automation, including robots and machines to help with lifting, and on wearable devices for every employee to show their surroundings and detect in when workers go beyond a specified range of motion. There is even talk of adding robots. 

While Amazon may have the deep pockets required to spend that type of money on automating tasks, what about their bottom line? What about the other companies who have plenty of MSDs but not the riches of Amazon? How can they reduce injuries and lost work days, cut down on claims and recordables, and improve worker satisfaction? 

VIRTUAL INJURY PREVENTION

There are lower cost ways to prevent injuries, improve productivity, and boost employee morale in the workplace that does not require... robots. 

Healthy Roster developed a remote injury prevention solution that gives industrial companies a way to do all that on every shift, for every worker, at every location. 

The Virtual Injury Prevention Telehealth Platform provides manufacturing and distribution companies: 

• Telehealth Injury Triage
• Remote Injury Prevention
• Virtual Ergonomic Evaluations
• Safety Team Augmentation

With an easy-to-use kiosk on the facility floor, workers have tele-video access to expert care and support, even at remote locations or during late shifts, to help increase safety and triage every incident. Workers won't have to leave the plant and find a doctor, possibly losing work time as well as wages, to triage an injury. The platform can help proactively evaluate ergonomic and human performance activities to prevent injuries, or keep them from getting worse. This solution eliminates the need to hire additional full-time safety team or healthcare members.  

Ready to prevent injuries, increase productivity, and raise worker satisfaction? Talk to Healthy Roster today to learn how you can do more and spend less — and avoid the robots.