P-596 the Evaluation of Workplace Disability Management Program for Healthcare Workers in the Total Worker Health® Approach: The Return on Investment

Introduction The progressive population aging and the impact of related chronic disease affect work ability. The “Workplace Disability Management Program” (WDMP) was implemented in an Italian pediatric hospital with the aim of reducing the impact of an emerging disability deriving from illness or accident on the individual’s working ability and supporting healthcare workers (HCWs) in appropriate return to work. Methods The WDMP intervenes across four types of intervention, including internal reorganization of work duties, proposal improvement measures to the company management, psychological support, or extremely, changing jobs. In this study the evaluation of workers’ absenteeism and related cost was set up in the first three years of experience. The Return on Investment (ROI), the Break-Even Analysis (BEA) and the value of the average annual productivity of workers who took advantage of the WDMP were assessed. Results 131 HCWs were included in a period between 2017 and 2019, approximately 4% of hospital staff. Sickness absence days declined by 66.6% in the year following the WDMP compared to the previous year (p<0.001). The total estimated cost reduction of absenteeism was 427,896€ over a year. ROI was 27.66 and the break-even point was reached by implementing the program in 3.27 HCWs. Discussion The program impact highlighted its effectiveness in terms of a significant reduction of absenteeism. Job limitations were lower than the national benchmark (5.5% vs, 11.8%). Conclusion The econometric evaluation demonstrated the real effectiveness of the implemented WDMP, acting positively on productivity, as well as on health and well-being of employees.