Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD)
Musculoskeletal Injury (MSI)
The Musculoskeletal System is formed through the connection of bones, ligaments, cartilage, muscle, tendons, and nerves. Each of these structures, however, is susceptible to injury. MSD symptoms may range from aches and pains to more serious problems, which may eventually require time off work and/or medical treatment.
With severe and/or chronic cases, treatment and recovery are often unsatisfactory and the result may lead to permanent disability and/or loss of employment. MSDs include sprains, strains, repetitive motion and repetitive stress injuries, cumulative trauma disorders as well as soft tissue disorders.
These maladies are typically caused by unhealthy or inefficient postures, poor use of biomechanics, and often by what an employee does or does not do prior to performing any given task.
Risk is influenced by perceptions, habits, and barriers. Risk levels increase due to: lack of experience, inefficient postures, overweight, excessive force, age, overexertion, cumulative stress, lifting, pulling, pushing, the pace of work, and extremes of joint motion, such as overreaching, spinal twisting and overextension. Poor workstation setup and equipment design also play an important role with creating and preventing injuries.
Accurate Ergonomics addresses these challenges by providing solutions which focus on the elimination of MSD risk and MSD hazards through engineering and administrative controls.
Workforce studies show that 75-80% of employees surveyed experience fatigue, discomfort and pain every day they are at work. 87% of those were Musculoskeletal (MSD) related. These conditions are more common in workforces than most employers even imagine and they apply to every employee, no matter what tasks or duties they perform.
Add to this, congenital anomalies, previous car accidents, sports injuries, etc., you then get an appreciation for the true brevity of this problem. Since many of these early warning signs cannot be seen by an untrained eye or casual observer, they often remain undisclosed, overlooked, and are often obscured or even rewarded at times by organizational foundations built on lagging indicators, negative post-injury reactions or compliance-based safety.
These underlying currents act as hidden constant denominators in workplaces, which work against all other efforts to fully integrate health, prevention, and productivity. They are also precipitous barriers to efficiency and profitability for every organization.
Accurate Ergonomics views this condition as a workforce divided by pain and since day one we have fully integrated health, wellness and effective countermeasures into the core of our premier injury and illness prevention training, and other ergonomics solutions offerings. We have helped hundreds of employers and a vast number of employees improve their health and skills, and prevent employees from becoming the victims of painful and costly injuries and illnesses.
Click here to learn more about MSDs: MSDs – An Inside Look.