2024 Theo Award Winner: True Value Company

True Value Company, a leading hard lines wholesaler with a 75-year history, faced significant challenges in 2020 and 2021 as workers’ compensation claims and costs spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it did for many essential businesses. True Value saw claim frequency rise in 2020 and 2021 compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Recognizing the need for change, True Value brought on new leadership in risk management and environmental health and safety (EHS) in mid-2021. This new team developed a comprehensive strategy focused on driving higher safety standards through innovation, continuous improvement, and a holistic approach to workers’ compensation.

Tackling the Problem

True Value implemented a multi-faceted approach to address its safety challenges. The company initiated ergonomic training and program planning across its network, establishing standard operating procedures and fostering Ergonomic Champions. Partnering with ErgoPlus, True Value rolled out a work readiness system to help associates prepare for their tasks as “industrial athletes.”

To encourage personal ownership of safety, True Value created quarterly safety initiatives. These included the “Focus on the Fix” program, where associates document and resolve unsafe conditions, and a “Safety Peer Recognition” program to reinforce safe behaviors. Monthly safety review meetings became a cornerstone for collaboration, facilitating the sharing of best practices and tracking of safety behaviors.

“Safety has always been an important part of our culture, but these initiatives have really brought it into the spotlight,” said Matt Kula, who was transitioning out of his role as risk manager at the time of publication. “The routine monthly safety calls led by the EHS team have been key in connecting the distribution centers and involving them in claim reviews, which wasn’t always the case before.

“The monthly calls now include not just our general operations managers and HR, but also frontline supervisors who discuss findings and highlight safety spotlights of employees. This has been crucial in incorporating and sharing practices across the board and fostering connections between the distribution centers.“

True Value set annual improvement goals for OSHA Total Recordable Incident Rate and Lost Time Incident Rate, with each site developing specific safety improvement plans. The company also implemented a safety shoe policy requiring OSHA-compliant footwear in warehouse and manufacturing areas.

To enhance oversight and efficiency, True Value moved to quarterly actuarial analysis and expanded participation in claim reviews. The company identified medical provider panels to build relationships for effective treatment and understanding of operations. True Value also conducted an RFP process to select a new TPA partner, CorVel, to provide a holistic approach to managing workers’ compensation claims, including the implementation of nurse triage for immediate intervention and care advice.

Matthew Kula, former Risk Manager, True Value Company

“One thing I’ve learned is to bring all your partners together rather than keeping them separate,” said Kula. “Often, you might work with your TPA, insurer, and broker independently, without involving them in each other’s conversations. However, there are certain discussions where bringing everyone to the table can be beneficial, as it allows for sharing expertise, ideas and experiences.”

Kula added, “The great thing about the insurance world is that even if we haven’t encountered a specific situation, it’s likely that someone else has, whether within our industry or in a different one. Our partners can gain knowledge from their diverse clientele and even connect us with their clients who have had similar experiences.

“I believe that open communication and bringing together all resources at once is crucial. Rather than spending time and effort on back-and-forth conversations and playing telephone, it’s more effective to have everyone come together for a quick meeting to answer all questions. If there are any takeaways or unresolved issues, we can always reconvene later.”

Success to Build On

True Value’s comprehensive approach has yielded significant improvements in risk reduction and safety culture. Workers’ compensation claim frequency decreased in 2022 compared to 2021, with a further impressive reduction in 2023. Total incurred claims costs also saw substantial decreases year over year.

By March 2024, True Value had reduced its open workers’ compensation claim count significantly compared to the end of 2022, resulting in savings on historical ultimate losses. The company’s ergonomics efforts are showing particular promise, with a steep reduction in musculoskeletal disorders compared to the baseline established for the National Safety Council’s MSD Pledge.

Organization: True Value Company * Location: Chicago, IL * Category: Retail & Wholesale * Number of Employees: 3,500

These results have empowered True Value’s associates and generated positive momentum for health, safety, and wellbeing. The company continues to build on its successes while examining areas of opportunity, maintaining a strong commitment to protecting its workforce and fostering a culture of safety excellence.

“We have a long history, which is really nice, and we want to spotlight, share, and celebrate it while taking care of our employees,” said Kula. “It’s clear that this is important to everyone, so we want to project, compound, and support that.” &

The Theo Award celebrates its inaugural year, honoring 31 workers’ compensation programs for their excellence and service to workers across the nation. To learn more about the award and amazing qualities each winner possesses, visit here.

How Investing in Clinical Analytics Can Help Improve Patient Outcomes and Foster a Collaborative Approach in Workers’ Comp

Analyzing clinical data can help occupational medicine clinicians improve their practices and provide better care for injured workers.

By: Concentra | September 3, 2024

Occupational health providers are always looking for ways to improve care. Today, clinical data and new predictive analytic tools are helping occupational health clinicians streamline processes, develop tailored treatment plans, and improve outcomes. These tools can drive improved care coordination, help clinicians improve their treatment skills, and even determine when specialist intervention would benefit an injured employee. This can help clinicians build positive relationships with injured employees, which can lead to improved recoveries and high levels of patient satisfaction.

What Clinical Data Can Do

Geneva Giang, Senior Vice President of Clinical Analytics, Concentra

Clinical data can be applied throughout the patient journey to help drive better care outcomes.

Analytic models can be used to review and assess patient files to determine whether an injured employee may be at risk for missing appointments. Then, clinicians, adjusters, or other stakeholders can step in and implement interventions to help the injured employee stay on their treatment path.

Machine learning models can rapidly process and audit a clinician’s notes, providing information and insights to improve documentation and practice patterns. These tools can also help detect when an injured employee might need more attention and when it might be advantageous or necessary for a specialist referral.

“Our first machine learning model gives us a heads-up when a patient is likely to cancel or miss their appointment. These predictive analytics enable us to identify trends or factors that potentially preclude an injured employee from showing up or consistently following our clinician’s recommendation. Knowing this allows us to step in and contact the patient or the employer to encourage the employee’s compliance,” said Geneva Giang, senior vice president of clinical analytics at Concentra.

“It’s a much more effective and efficient way to audit charts, to understand individual practice patterns, and to achieve optimal patient outcomes,” said John Anderson, executive vice president and chief medical officer at Concentra.

“We are training the model to understand the appropriate behavior in terms of when specialist intervention is most appropriate,” Giang added. “It’s the clinician that makes the decision. It’s not the machine.”

Using Data to Reveal Opportunities for Learning

John Anderson, Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Concentra

Analyzing a clinician’s referral patterns can reveal knowledge gaps and opportunities for learning and improving skill sets in certain areas, e.g. eye injuries, lacerations, minor fractures, etc.

“We’re able to identify individual clinicians’ practice patterns,” Anderson said. “We can then sit down with them and have a discussion. Maybe they need a refresher on orthopedics or their confidence in treating eye or other injuries. Maybe managing return to work could be improved. The data provides empirical evidence of the clinician’s practices. This information can be used by the medical director to direct a clinician to seek ongoing training and continuing medical education.

“Everyone going into medicine has committed to lifelong learning, and the information gained from machine learning can be used to focus clinicians on areas that will result in continuous improvements in the quality of care we provide to injured employees. We give our clinicians the building blocks and the motivation to take them to that next level,” Anderson said.

Why a High-Caliber Analytics Team Makes a Difference

Giang joined Concentra in 1995. Since then, Concentra has been committed to using data and evolving analytic tools such as machine learning and natural language processing to refine and advance its clinical model. The results speak for themselves. The company used these tools to improve patient care and shorten the time it takes to get injured employees back to their pre-injury levels of function.

Concentra’s data science and analytics team consists of highly skilled technological professionals and analysts who understand how to analyze and interpret data and share insights with clinicians to drive optimal clinical outcomes.

“Our team looks at information and tells a story. We work to understand both individual and group practice patterns to be able to evaluate trends,” Giang said.

How Analytics Can Foster a Collaborative Approach in Workers’ Comp

“It is our job to focus on continually evolving in response to the changing dynamic of patient behavior, but also to have a positive impact on all of our clients, be they employers, payers or the patients,” Giang said.

The company is working to digitize its data so clients can easily consume and electronically incorporate it into their systems to better understand how a care-first model can improve claims outcomes and reduce costs.

“We’re investing a great deal to digitize all of our data so that we can share it with the employer and payer directly,” Anderson said.

“When we do what’s best for the injured employee in terms of providing optimal care of their injury or illness, everybody benefits. The patient benefits, the payer benefits, the employer benefits, the community benefits, and the patient’s family benefits. Our focus is on getting the injured employee treated and restored to their previous pre-injury level of function as quickly as possible by breaking down any barriers or delays that would slow that down. Our ability to improve care and outcomes is made possible from information provided by our clinical analytics and data science team.”

To learn more, visit: https://www.concentra.com/

This article was produced by the R&I Brand Studio, a unit of the advertising department of Risk & Insurance, in collaboration with Concentra. The editorial staff of Risk & Insurance had no role in its preparation.

Concentra® is America’s leading provider of occupational health services, delivering work-related injury care, physical therapy, and workforce health services from nearly 550 Concentra medical centers and more than 150 onsite clinics at employer locations nationwide.

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