Reed Group® MDGuidelines Adds Colorado and Washington State Treatment Guidelines
Access and Ease of Use Helps States Improve Workers’ Compensation Outcomes
Broomfield, CO (PRWEB) September 16, 2010
Reed Group announced today that its MDGuidelines reference tool set for improving return-to-work outcomes is now even more powerful with the addition of workers’ compensation treatment guidelines for Colorado and Washington states.
While the nationally-recognized ACOEM disability treatment guidelines are already available on MDGuidelines (www. mdguidelines. com), states often develop their own specific guidelines to address the most costly and/or common workplace injuries for the prevalent industries in that state. State treatment guidelines typically outline what will and won’t be reimbursed for medical providers handling workers’ compensation injuries with the intention of expediting treatment and lowering costs by limiting unnecessary or unproven treatments.
The Washington State Treatment Guidelines are arranged by medical topic (each of which encompasses multiple medical codes). The Colorado Guidelines are arranged by 10 regions of the body (such as “lower extremity”), each covering numerous medical topics.
While both sets of state guidelines are available as downloadable PDF documents from their respective state websites, MDGuidelines greatly improves functionality, access and usage with the ability to easily search and navigate the content. Icons signify whether a procedure is recommended, not recommended, or should be approached with caution (meaning that there may be a list of objective data requiring documentation for the procedure to be approved). Hyperlinks help users quickly and easily jump to related sections or relevant outside content.
“Ease of use is the critical factor for successful widespread and rapid adoption of state treatment guidelines,” says Jon Seymour, M. D., Reed Group’s president, guidelines. “Our MDGuidelines platform makes it simple and easy for all stakeholders to access, understand and use the state guidelines, facilitating use and improving outcomes for everybody in the workers’ compensation system.”
In addition to the Colorado and Washington treatment guidelines, the MDGuidelines reference tool set offers Reed Group’s Medical Disability Advisor (MDA) return-to-work duration guidelines with predictive modeling (enables general guidelines to be tailored to individual patients or employees) as well as APG-i treatment guidelines from the American College of Occupational and Environmental Health (ACOEM), both widely considered to be the gold standard in occupational health.
ABOUT REED GROUP
Reed Group® is the world’s most trusted source of return-to-work information, helping companies improve employee absence outcomes. Reed Group’s data, tools, customized solutions, and case management services help reduce absence incidence and duration, and get employees back to normal, healthy lives and full productivity. Reed Group is headquartered in Westminster, Colorado. More information at www. reedgroup. com and www. mdguidelines. com
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