Hundreds of local employers attend SIH workers comp symposium
Nearly 200 regional human resources directors, industrial and retail managers, mine managers and operators and municipal leaders attended the 2018 Workers' Compensation Symposium sponsored by SIH in the Diamond Club at Rend One Park, in Marion.
Shawn Berry, an Illinois workers' compensation defense attorney, law professor and mediator, gave the keynote address including an overview of several relevant recent cases and legislative updates.
The symposium also included a mock workers' compensation trial and sessions on investigations and how to handle arbitration.
Verlinda Henshaw, executive director of rehabilitation services at SIH, discussed the history of workers' compensation care at SIH and expansion plans for SIH WORKcare.ready.well programs. After lunch and the keynote speech, a panel of SIH providers answered participants' questions.
"I found the symposium very helpful,' said Candice Kotter, a representative from Night Hawk Coal in Perry County. "They help bring some important issues to light. It's quite a service to the community."
The WORKcare.ready.well porgrams combine the occupational health, rehabilitation and wellness programs that serve regional companies and their employees into a central store for those services.
They include injury prevention and other preventative programs, health and wellness programs, ergonomic analyses, injury navigation management, and treatment and rehabilitation of injured workers.
Dena Kirk, administrative director of SIH occupational medicine and rehabilitation services, said this is the third year for the SIH symposium.
"This year we wanted to update employers on the latest and best practices in workman's compensation," she said, "but these symposiums also offer a great opportunity for networking, sharing stories and comparing procedures and practices.
"The symposium also aligns with our mission of helping improve the health and wellness of all of the people in the communities we serve."
Other businesses in attendance were Aisin, the city of Benton, Jackson County Mass Transit and Wildcat Hills Peabody mines in Saline County, among others.