Using Key Performance Indicators to Demonstrate Your Team’s Value

Case Management Focus

In last week’s post, I shared eight Return-to-Work Strategies for Nurse Case Managers to use in helping the injured worker return to gainful employment. This week, I wanted to discuss metrics, independent nurse case managers, directors, managers, and supervisors can use to document their work and demonstrate the value they bring to employers and the organization they work for. 

Here are some key performance indicators that can be collected on each case: 

Return-to-Work Rates: Percentage of injured employees who successfully return to work within a set timeframe.

Time to Return: Average number of days from injury to return. 

Return to the Same job in the same company, different job in the same company, same job in a different company, different job in a different company. Tracking this helps to see how light duty, accommodation, and other strategies contribute to the injured worker's return to work.

Reoccurrence Rates: Re-injury or relapse after returning to work. A low rate suggests that the injured worker is appropriately accommodated and ready to return to work.

Retention Post-Return: How many employees stay employed 6–12 months after returning? This reflects long-term success.

Results from Satisfaction Surveys: Ask returning employees about their experiences, support, communication, accommodation, and overall confidence.

Input from the employer on how well the transition was handled. These results (good or bad) can help you demonstrate how your team is doing and where they can improve.

Track changes in claims, premiums, avoidance of litigation and if litigation if it does occur as ell as lost time. Fewer lost days equals better outcomes. If you can attribute dollars to these metrics, your reports will be even stronger. 

These metrics will help you demonstrate the value of your and your team's efforts to those you work for. Having positive metrics is crucial for renewing contracts and educating and empowering your teams to continue their important work as part of your ongoing quality performance improvement efforts. Looking at metrics that don’t meet the standards you set, allows you to bring in education to your team so they can understand their roles. 

What metrics are you using in your organization? Please share this with me so I can use it in follow-up articles. You can reach me at allewellyn48@gmail.com 

Last but not least, I hope you celebrate the wins and learn from the challenges. Have a good week!

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