Occupational Therapy

As ergonomic and other workplace injuries rise, the Alaska Spine Institute Occupational Therapy department will be there to prevent additional injuries and rehabilitate those suffering from acute or chronic pain. The occupational therapist on staff can perform an array of services to meet the needs from the individual patient to the large corporations. Some of the services performed by the OT are as follows:

Hand and Upper Extremity Services:
Assessment and treatment of hand and upper extremity injuries is a specialty of our occupational therapist. We can also design and customize splints for recovery of function.

Ergonomic Consultations:
The ASI occupational therapist visits the workplace to observe the work environment and advise employers and employees on how to re-structure the work setting to reduce injuries. By understanding the biomechanics of work, he can fix the workstation the first time.

Job Analyses and Job Descriptions:
We are able to perform job analyses and work site consultations to identify behaviors, postures, dangerous loads, and repetitive motions that put workers at risk. The therapist is able to help identify essential and non-essential job functions of the tageted positions and assist with complying with the ADA. On-site evaluations of manual labor-intensive jobs help identify and quantify forces, loads, and torques as well as unsafe work practices contributing to back injuries and cumulative trauma. We can even determine areas of the job where employees may be "at risk for injury" using the 3D Static Strength Predition Program or NIOSH Lifting Equations.