Sidebar : Some TLC in Kansas City

Stanley Hammer's face lights up and he begins to make wisecracks as soon as physical therapist Leslie Johnson enters the exercise room. Hammer owes a lot to Johnson and the other therapists at the Kansas City Ford assembly plant's rehabilitation center. In less than three weeks, they've worked him back to restricted duty after a near fatal injury. He describes the details of his mishap in a surprisingly detached manner.

As the day shift came to the end of its time, inspectors noticed a defect in an SUV fresh off the assembly line. The heavy vehicle was on a pit in the repair area when a wheel slipped off an axle and lodged in the pit opening. The weight of the carriage compressed the inflated tire to dangerous levels. Hammer, with his supervisor's approval, offered to unscrew the air valve on the tire to allow the air to disperse. Just as he reached for the valve, the wheel blew out from under the SUV.

"There was this unbelievable explosion," recalls Hammer, a 35-year plant veteran and member of the United Auto Workers. "The wheel hit me square in the stomach and drove me back 10 feet into a brick retaining wall. I lay on the floor barely able to breath and in great pain."

Hammer suffered serious back injuries, including a herniated disk, as well as injuries to his abdominal muscles. Within 48 hours, he was in the plant rehabilitation center receiving physical therapy and doing light exercises. "The therapists here have been great, especially Leslie," Hammer remarks. "I came in here in a such pain, I could barely walk. They knew exactly what to do. Best thing about it is that I can still be around my friends at work. I don't feel isolated from the job."

Less than 5 percent of U.S. corporations have on-site physical rehabilitation centers. According to industry data, getting into an outside rehabilitation center takes an average of nine days, compared with a three-day average at the UAW/Ford on-site centers. This quick access to therapy for injured workers results in five fewer lost workdays, at a $3,100 per case savings.

The on-site rehabilitation center in the Kansas City plant, with its 5,400 hourly UAW workers, handles the highest volume of injured worker cases. According to 2000-01 data supplied by the Hopkins team, the rehab center took care of 854 cases. The center has an attendance rate of 80 percent and a worker satisfaction rate of 93 percent, says Johnson, the center's director, for the quality of care and the staff. "We scoured the Kansas City area for the best physical and occupational therapists we could find," she adds.

"Creating the rehab center is one of the best things the plant and the union has done," according to Rob Bryce, plant human resources manager. "The program has saved the plant more than $2 million annually in medical, worker's compensation and productivity costs."

CHANGE
May 21, 2002
Volume 6, Number 10

A NOVEL ALLIANCE
An Industry Giant, A Labor Union and Hopkins Join Forces to Provide Quality Treatment To Injured Workers