What You Can Do with the COHE Model: Implications for Action

CME/MOC: 1.5
TRACK: Management and Administration in OEM

Paul Allen, MD, Confluence Health, Wenatchee, WA
Dianna Chamblin, MD, The Everett Clinic, Evert, WA
Jennifer Christian, MD, MPH, FACOEM, Webility Corporation, Wayland, MA
Nicole Cushman, COHE Alliance of Western Washington, Tacoma, WA
Benjamin D. Doornink, St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute, Spokane, WA
Karen L. Nilson, MD, Valley Medical Center, Renton, WA
Thomas Wickizer, MD, Ohio State University College of Public Health, Columbus, OH

This session explores the implications of Washington State’s highly successful community-based Centers for Occupational Health and Education (COHE) program for occupational medicine physicians outside Washington State, whether they are in clinical practice or in entrepreneurial, managerial or executive roles. This session begins with a brief overview of the COHE community-based “best practices” model for management of work injuries and its well-documented good results: increased worker and employer satisfaction, improved functional outcomes, reduced lost work days and job loss, and a $4,000 reduction in mean cost per claim. The majority of the session will be spent exploring main opportunities to exploit COHE’s success in other settings.Take advantage of the quantitative evidence that the COHE program has produced to market occupational medicine practices or related businesses and implement an approach similar to COHE outside Washington. The COHE model is a public health/healthcare delivery innovation to upgrade the quality of care across whole communities or regions. Employers or insurers in other jurisdictions may view an adapted COHE model as a good solution for areas in which there is a shortage of trained occupational medicine physicians. This session was organized by the Work Fitness and Disability Special Interest Section.