title: Early healthcare provider communication with patients and their workplace following a lost-time claim for an occupational musculoskeletal injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  One of the key players in the return-to-work (RTW) and work accommodation process is the healthcare provider (HCP). This study examines the association between RTW approximately one month post injury and early, proactive HCP communication with the patient and workplace.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this cross-sectional study 187 Ontario workers completed a telephone survey 17-43 days post injury. All had accepted or pending lost-time claims for back, neck or upper extremity occupational musculoskeletal injuries. Logistic regression was used to analyze the effects of three self-reported items "your HCP told you the date you could RTW," "your HCP advised you on how to prevent re-injury or recurrence," "your HCP made contact with your workplace" on self-reported RTW. Fourteen potential confounders were also tested in the model including sex, age, income, education, occupational classification, worksite size, co-morbidity, psycho-physical work demands, pain, job satisfaction, depression, and time from injury to interview.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The HCP giving a patient a RTW date (adjusted OR=3.33, 95% CI=1.62-6.87) and giving a patient guidance on how to prevent recurrence and re-injury (adjusted OR=2.71, 95% CI=1.24-5.95) were positively associated with an early RTW. Contact by the HCP with the workplace was associated with RTW, however, this association became weaker upon adjusting for confounding variables (crude OR=2.11, 95% C1=1.09-4.09; adjusted OR=1.72, 95% CI=0.83-3.58).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study lends support to the HCP playing an active role early in the RTW process, one that includes direct contact with the workplace and proactive communication with the patient.
authors: Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Agnieszka
authors: A
authors: Kosny
authors: Renée-Louise
authors: RL
authors: Franche
authors: Jason
authors: J
authors: Pole
authors: Niklas
authors: N
authors: Krause
authors: Pierre
authors: P
authors: Côté
authors: Cameron
authors: C
authors: Mustard