Reducing the physical and fiscal pain of back injury

In the British Columbia health care industry from 1988 to 1990 occupational back injury accounted for 37 per cent of the time lost to injuries and 47 per cent of costs associated with wage loss. In 1988, the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, British Columbia, implemented an early-intervention and occupational rehabilitation program. By 1990, this program had reduced the hospital's average time lost to back injury by 43 per cent. This article describes the procedures and benefits of the program.