The DMH Corporate Health Campus on 27th Street-right in the heart of Decatur's industrial sector-has undergone considerable change and growth in the last year.

In February 2000, Decatur Memorial Hospital Corporate Health Services and Midwest Occupational Health Associates (MOHA) combined their occupational medicine programs into one program call MOHA/Corporate Health Services. The combined program is housed in a 20,000 square foot clinical facility that offers employers "one-stop shopping" for their employee health needs.

Along with more than a dozen exam room and four trama bays, the redesigned clinical facility has on-site acute physical and occupational therapy including specialized hand therapy. And with two full-time dedicated anesthesia rooms, DMH Central Illinois Pain Medicine offers serves such as epidural steriod injections and stellate ganglion blocks.

SHORE

Another facility also located on this 10-acre campus is SHORE (Safety, Health Occupational Rehabilitation for Employees) - a new 35.000 square-foot combined warehouse and classroom facility that houses a state-of-the-art industrial rehabilitation program and comprehensive OSHA safety training.

Unlike any other program in downstate Illinois, SHORE represents a joint venture among DMH, Richland Community College and this author to offer employers a comprehensive training facility designed to prevent work injury in the first place.

SHORE houses a large specially designed aquatics pool, a large three-story open warehouse with simulated confined space entry, elevated industrial work platform, a loading dock and shoveling pits. There is even a functional Rail Car donated by ADM for training and work simulation.

SHORE takes a "low-tech/high-tech" approach to functional assessment and rehabilitation:

• working conditioning/hardening
• functional capacity evaluation
• job analysis
• litigation services, including case review
• post job offer screening
• aquatic therapy

This specialist designed a validated user friendly FCE report format that gives physicians and others involved in the care of injured workers real-world answers about return to work capabilities and consistency of effort.

Treatment of injured workers: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach

Treating work injuries offers unique challenges under the Illinois workers' compensation system. Often, there is delayed recovery, including symptom magnification. The DMH industrial medicine campus offers a continuum of services to help prevent delayed recovery and fast-track return-to-work. The state-of-the-art program offers the lates technology and rehabilitative equipment. Comprehensive burn care is also offered with whirlpools and hyperbariac oxygen chamber.

The program hours accomodate the unique needs of employers, who often prefer workers to rehab early mornings or late afternoon. The program allows safety directors and rehabilitation nurses easy access to MOHA staff physicians and DMH therapists.

As medical director, I hold biweekly meetings with the rehab staff to review patient status and help identify barriers to case closure and return to work.

Treating the injured worker is like treating the ""injured athlete."" As in sports medicine, quick return to duty is the key rehabilitative goal. Therapy programs work to improve function for injured workers to return to work, even if it is in a transitional (light) duty capacity. Since many of the patients involved in treatment have workers' compensation claims with potential litigation, the program is designed to provide the necessary written documentation to proces and defend workers' compensation claims against employers.

Work Injury 2000

MOHA, DMH and SHORE co-sponsor the annual Work Injury 2000 Prevention & Control Strategies seminar. Now it its eighth year, this confernece offers CME credit for physicians and draws more than 300 participants each year. This year's conference is set for Oct. 5 and addresses upper extremity programs in the workplace. Work Injury is the leading academic conference in the state concerning cutting-edge issues involving injured workers.

In Closing

Combining occupational medicine, exercise physiologists, physical therapy and occupational therapy, SHORE and MOHA/Corporate Health can deliver the results needed to control healthcare costs in the workplace with timely return to work and identifying patients with symptom magnification.

No other facility like this exists in Illinois. This unique program will help attract employers to the area and has already gained national recognition. The new program was featured as the cover story in the April 2000 issue of Visions, a prominent national occupational medicine trade publication. This new joint operation serves more than 600 companies in the region.

- Originally published in OrthoEdge - a quarterly publication by Decatur Memorial Hospital for the Central Illinois Orthopedic Center.