HealthBeat: Occupational Health & Wellness News from MWorks & MFit
MWorks News
MWorks Experts Speak at National Conferences
On November 28 Suzanne Bade gave a presentation titled “Ageonomics®: Ergonomics for the Aging Population” to an audience of 150 at the National Ergonomics Conference and Exposition. Bade, Senior Clinical Specialist and Ergonomic Consultant at MWorks and Chairperson of the Michigan Healthy Community Ergonomics Awareness Team, spoke about creatively adjusting to the trend of an intergenerational and aging workforce. The conference was held November 27-30 in Las Vegas and was attended by about 1,500 ergonomics and health and safety professionals from around the world.
Dr. Susan Blitz, Medical Director of the U-M Health System Employee Health Service, recently presented a poster at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) WorkLife conference. The poster summarized the outcomes from the first two years of the Enhanced Ergonomics program of the Michigan Healthy Community initiative at the University of Michigan and was created by Dr. Blitz and Sarah Cooney, an occupational therapist with MWorks. The conference, held September 9-11, focused on combining health and safety initiatives in the occupational and personal arenas. Occupational health and safety and wellness personnel attended the event.
MWorks Physician Named MOEMA Secretary
Deborah Heaney, M.D., was recently elected to serve as Secretary on the MOEMA (Michigan Occupational and Environmental Medicine Association) Executive Committee. This is her second year serving on the MOEMA Board of Directors. Dr. Heaney is an assistant professor of emergency medicine and an occupational medicine physician with the University of Michigan Health System’s MWorks Occupational Medicine Clinic.
MWorks Holds Business Briefing on Americans with Disabilities Act
Susan Sutorka, Case Management Assistant, MWorks Disability Management
Helping attendees navigate issues pertaining to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) was the primary focus of Carole Dubritsky, Trish Klamert, MS RN BSN COHN-S/CM CCM CDMS, and Sarah P. Cooney, OTR during a November 7th, 2007 MWorks Business Briefing on the subject. The event, held at Weber’s Inn, drew a large crowd of employers from a variety of industries.
Dubritsky, U-M ADA coordinator and assistant director in the Office of Institutional Equity, stressed the importance of employers having essential job functions listed for every position, which is best accomplished by having 3-4 concise bullet point statements to describe the job. An unreasonable job accommodation would remove one of these essential job functions. It is important to establish a procedure in responding to ADA accommodation requests, as well as a point person designated for handling requests.
Klamert, the manager of the University of Michigan’s MWorks Disability Management Program, began a discussion of the ADA from an HR Manager’s perspective and included many examples of ADA cases which she has worked. Klamert also discussed recent updates to the act, as well as new bills that are currently being reviewed.
Klamert presented steps to accommodation that employers should go through including: notification, individualized assessment, the accommodation process, implementing the accommodation, and evaluating the effectiveness of the accommodation. She also discussed forms MWorks Disability Management often uses when evaluating whether the employee is a qualified individual under the ADA. Klamert ended her discussion with ways in which the ADA interacts with workers’ compensation, short term disability, the family medical leave act, and collective bargaining agreements.
Cooney, who is a registered occupational therapist with over 10 years of experience, discussed strategies for keeping accommodations reasonable. Cooney related back to the importance of having essential job functions and how important is it that those job functions are completely accurate. She gave many examples that discussed employers’ concerns regarding cost of accommodations for workers. In reality, many accommodations are free or very low cost to the employer.
The briefing concluded with all three presenters answering a number of questions from audience members about cases they encountered and what could be done in their specific situation. Some of these examples included whether accommodations that were accepted in the past could be revised, what questions or pre-employment screenings employers can use during the hiring process without violating the ADA, and discussing the importance of having transition programs for employees coming back from a leave.
MWorks offers case management services as well as occupational therapy services for cases involving the Americans with Disabilities Act. For more information or to request a DVD of the November 7, 2007 ADA business briefing presentation, call 734-975-3028 or visit www.med.umich.edu/mworks/disability.htm.
MWorks Employer Advisory Board Formed
MWorks has formed an Employer Advisory Board, a group of customers representing the diverse business community served by MWorks and MFit. The Board provides MWorks and MFit managers with feedback on occupational health needs in the workplace, emerging business and health trends, industry economic forecasts and advice on how best to serve the occupational health needs of the corporate community. The Board also provides members with an opportunity to discuss occupational health-related topics with colleagues.
The inaugural meeting was held in April 2007 with subsequent meetings in August and December. The following companies have participated in the meetings to date: Pall Corporation; Lenawee Stamping Corporation; Eastern Michigan University; Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority; Ann Arbor Public Schools; NSK Bearing Corporation; Barton Malow; Manpower, Inc. of S.E. Michigan; Trinity Continuing Care Services; Plastech Engineered Products, Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, and the City of Ypsilanti.