Date of Award

8-2026

Document Type

Project

Degree Name

Master of Public Health

Department

Health Science and Human Ecology

First Reader/Committee Chair

Henley, Nicole

Abstract

Jobs provide financial security for individual workers and their families in the community until a worker gets hurt on the job, and then things are up in the air until their workers’ compensation claim is approved. It is a well-known fact within the workers compensation literature that one third of all workers’ compensation (WC) claims are “low back sprains and strains” which are the leading cause of global disability (Ummey, 2023). This project proposed to explore the relationship of x-ray and MRI result interpretations by the physician and standardize the duration of treatment with a physical therapist and new concept of having a motivational psychologist (Vision Coach) to determine if it would decrease the length of a claim to less than 180 days (6 months) of temporary disability. A retrospective review was performed on the x-ray and MRI results of 23 low back claims to see if the result interpretations could be used to: 1)  better streamline duration of treatment to 8 weeks, 2) re-classify results under pre-existing conditions which are approved to have x-rays and physical therapy until they reach their “baseline” prior to the work injury,  or 3) re-classify results to exempt claimant from having a claim because their results are considered to be related to structural instability which is non-industrial. Non-industrial means that the results are not related to the injury which occurred at the job but were either pre-existing or congenital (meaning they were born with it). The 23 workers were composed of 61% females and 39% males of which 96% had back pain from their work injury. 50% females and 56% males were smokers with disc degeneration. 57% of them had a spondylolisthesis (“slip”) while 31% had scoliosis, and 17.4% had compression fractures and 8.7% had congenital spinal stenosis.  None had a pars fracture. The combined x-rays and MRI scan readings showed 78% of the workers had either spondylolisthesis, scoliosis, compression fractures or congenital spinal stenosis which are considered structural instabilities which are considered pre-existing and non-industrial. The claims should have been denied or closed after completing physical therapy lasting 6-8 weeks, instead of lasting greater than 180 days (6 months).  This paper offers a guidebook proposal for establishing better communication strategies for improving the mental state and motivation of injured workers, along with a standardized duration of treatment timeline with specific goals to improve the care for musculoskeletal injury. It also offers the workers compensation non-surgical physician a succinct checklist of important terminology (“buzz words”), definitions and pictures of non-industrial conditions to know from the x-ray and MRI Scan reports.

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