I’ve always been a fan of the obscure connection. Not the unimportant one, but the ones that don’t seem to fit at first glance but take on a greater meaning as you fill in the context.
I think I have mentioned before that I enjoy watching reruns of the BBC show Connections, which was a show dedicated to that very premise. One of my favorites, how the pursuit of keeping food and beverages cold — think beer — resulted in the space age. Keeping the beer cold led to refrigeration, which led to the technology to compress gases into liquids which enabled us to create rockets with the power to get to space.
So why would I be writing about this? Well, to make sure we answer the question of what the high school athletic trainers we feature in our pages this month mean for your production floor or office setting. They are certainly connected. The trainers, and the approach they use to keep high school athletes in the game, can also be used to keep your workforce healthy.
Your workforce — your athletes, if you will — can benefit from the same therapeutic and preventative approach to keep them healthy or see them return to work and their lifestyle much faster if an injury does occur through the on-site/near-site programs our partner providers take part in. You give them access to your workforce, they work with them to stay healthy and treat problems before they become serious episodes involving lost time and deteriorating health.
They might not be able run a slant over the middle or bend it like Beck- ham, but these programs can resolve those nagging pains in backs, knees and shoulders and ultimately help prevent OSHA recordable incidents.
We have written about some of the programs in the past, such as the one used by the Stevens Point Police Department, and there are other forms including physicians coming to an onsite/near-site clinic on a regular basis. It’s quality care, convenient access and affordable price in a way that you may not have thought about before.
The providers call it treating the industrial athlete. I guess that makes us all athletes again. Think I’ll crack open a Gatorade and watch some more Connections.
