Stretching wellbeing to prevent ergonomic injuries

How does Boston Scientific, a leading global medical technology company, engage its 3,500 employees in wellbeing and reduce ergonomic injuries on the job? By launching a customized ergonomic stretching program that helps employees address issues before they become more serious medical concerns.

Stretching exercises offer quick ways to help employees improve their health—from reducing fatigue to improving balance, coordination and posture—as well as helping employees keep the company’s production lines moving pain free. Here’s how Boston Scientific stretches the idea of wellbeing and improves workplace safety and health.

The problem: An increase in on-the-job ergonomic injuries

Boston Scientific provides medical devices and high performance solutions that address unmet patient needs and help reduce the cost of health care.

The company’s medical device specialists working in its Maple Grove, Minn. facility build catheters that are used as access tubes for medical devices, providing access to the area of the body that the devices need to go.

This unique job requires frequent grasping of small parts and tools, long periods of standing and sitting, and often completing the work under a microscope.

Dan Dehmer, production supervisor, manages 80 medical device specialists who work on 14 manufacturing lines throughout three shifts in a designated clean room. Employees rotate throughout the workstations on the lines during their shift.

Although Dehmer and his team encouraged employees to take stretch breaks, they didn’t have a mandatory set time for stretching. “We promoted stretching, but we didn’t require it,” he says. “And we didn’t show employees how to stretch properly.”

Dehmer and his team also noticed employees were experiencing an increasing number of ergonomic injuries and realized there was a need to fix the program—and proactively eliminate or reduce the risk of injuries and help employees stay safe and pain free. But they knew they couldn’t develop the solution on their own.

Loren Redinger is the project manager in charge of reducing the number of ergonomic injuries at Boston Scientific’s Maple Grove facility. “Based on the number of injuries, we knew we needed more than a single overall stretching program,” he says. “We needed an expert that knew more about injury prevention than we did and who could provide a customized ergonomic solution for each individual workstation.”

The Solution: Partnering with Health Fitness for ergonomic services

HealthFitness was already established as Boston Scientific’s corporate fitness center and wellness partner, but here was a perfect opportunity for HealthFitness to share its expertise as an injury prevention and treatment provider—specifically as an ergonomic services consultant.

HealthFitness’ ergonomic experts partnered with Redinger and Dehmer to look at the 14 individual production lines to determine the pain points, the most appropriate stretches, and the best frequency of the stretches—with the goal of helping workers eliminate or reduce the risk of injury.

In partnership with the Boston Scientific, HealthFitness examined and identified the strengths, risks and areas for improvement of the production lines, workstations and worker behaviors. Based on the findings, HealthFitness recommended and implemented the following solutions:

1. Individual workstation ergonomic stretching programs to help workers reduce fatigue and improve balance, coordination and posture, and prevent injuries.

2. An early intervention program to encourage early reporting of discomfort.

Stretching programs and techniques are printed on large, colorful posters, with five colors representing the five different risk areas that require stretching. Each workstation contains laminated cards with colored stickers to show the risks of the station. Employees can use this tool to complete the recommended stretches for each station. The five areas and colors include shoulders, neck, torso, hands and back.

Redinger says the ergonomic stretching program was a welcome addition to the clean room. “Employees appreciate that we provide the stretching program and techniques as well as the tools to highlight their use at each station,” he says. “Employees know that anytime they need to stretch, they can take a stretch break, but six times a day (two per shift) we now have mandatory ergonomic stretch breaks where everyone must participate.”

Workers enjoy the stretch breaks

Dehmer says employees don’t mind the mandatory breaks—and even look forward to them. “The workers will stop what they’re doing and complete the stretch break—they enjoy the energy boost and stress relief,” he says. Each workstation carries different risks so he wants employees to use the cards that apply to that specific station. “We also don’t want employees to do the same stretches all of the time, so we change the entire stretch routine every 12 weeks.”

The colorful posters and cards demonstrate to employees how to stretch, the frequency of stretching, and the benefits of the stretch. “By creating tools and demonstrating the stretches, we are showing the staff that we care very much about them,” Dehmer says.

In addition to the stretch breaks, employees are encouraged to report any discomfort, pain or a sign of an injury to their supervisor.

Moving from the “Imperial March” to the “Imperial Stretch”

Dehmer and Redinger are proud that their department is the first group to roll out the ergonomic stretch program. “At first, we didn’t use music right away to announce the stretch breaks—we used a mega horn (bull horn),” Dehmer says, “Not a big surprise, but the mega horn didn’t work. It was too jarring and unsettling to the team.”

The clean room received an upgraded sound system and workers enjoyed hearing background music throughout their shift, but once the music changes to the majestic “Imperial March,” (also known as Darth Vader’s theme song) employees know it’s time for a stretch break.

“Everyone prefers Darth Vader’s theme song over the mega horn,” he says. “Once they hear the music shift to the ominous marching beat they know to finish their task and stretch,” he says. “Workers even shout out ‘time for a stretch break’ to their co-workers to serve as a reminder.”

A model solution

A few of the medical device specialists who work on the line also serve as the models for the posters and handouts, demonstrating the stretches step-by-step in the photos and dressed head to toe in clean room gear—including gloves, hair net, face mask and lab coat.

“Our employees make realistic models,” Dehmer says. “Our diverse workforce comes from all over the world and range in age from recent high school graduates to pre-retirement,” he says. “If employees see one of their co-workers on the posters demonstrating the stretches, they are more likely to participate and own the program.”

Medical device specialist Tamara Stelmakhova volunteered to be a stretching exercise model for the posters and handouts. “I enjoy the variety of the stretches and the color coding makes it easy to determine which stretches to focus on at each station—whether I am sitting or standing.”

She also appreciates the majestic musical reminder that signals mandatory stretch time. “Sometimes we get so focused on our tasks at the workstation that we need a strong reminder—like the Darth Vader theme song—to take a stretch break,” she says. “Otherwise it’s easy to have your head down to complete your tasks and you don’t realize that three hours have passed.”

Support at every level

Another key to success of the ergonomic stretch break program is visible support and participation from the company’s leadership— at all levels. This sets the tone for employees that stretching is an important part of their jobs.

“Once the Darth Vader music starts and the stretch break is announced, everyone in the clean room has to stretch—from executives, to engineers to safety managers, to production workers,” Dehmer says. “If the employees see leadership doing it, they are going to follow suit and we can sustain the program. Leadership support helps us get it right the first time.”

Learn more about ergonomic services
Launching an ergonomic services program in the workplace is one of the best ways to protect your most valuable asset: your employees. Losing workers due to on-the-job injuries can result in significant disruptions and costs to the worker and company. Focusing on the health and safety of employees, by addressing work and non-work related physical capabilities, can optimize your workforce—and lower the cost of injury and illness.

Why HealthFitness for ergonomic services?

Our ergonomic services are applicable for all environments and include interventions to address early reported discomforts prior to the need for medical diagnosis and treatment.

Our Ergonomic Consultation Services include:

• Identification of the strengths, risks and areas for improvement of your work environment, worksite and worker behaviors.
• A comprehensive review of existing injury prevention and manage¬ment systems, with a focused analysis (and recommendations) of your specific needs or issues.
• Solutions are prioritized based on cost and productivity impact projections. Assessment includes a written report of findings and a presentation to client management team.
• All services provided by trained HealthFitness ergonomic specialists.

We complete follow-up assessments to ensure solutions are implemented and your desired outcomes are achieved. In addition to in-person assessments, we also offer virtual ergonomic evaluations and recommendations for employees in office settings.