New Vision

We all know the toll that alcohol and drug use can take on the work place. Now, a new service is available in this area to help you retain your trained work force and get them the help they need. The New Vision Service is a Medical Stabilization service to safely assist people through the withdrawal from alcohol and drugs. Patients are admitted to the medical floor for an average of three days and treated medically through the course of their withdrawal. The entire stay is covered under most medical insurance plans. By using medical intervention to assist in a quick and safe withdrawal, your employees are able to come back to work much quicker. Most patients are referred to outpatient substance abuse treatment in their home area when they leave the hospital. This means, you only lose an employee for three to four days. I believe you will find that this significantly cuts down on sick time, high turnover and retraining costs.

Drugs and Alcohol in the Workplace

A report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found that 7.5% of Americans employed full time report heavy drinking, defined as drinking five or more drinks per occasion on five or more days in the past 30 days. According to a report published in Occupational Medicine, up to 40% of industrial fatalities and 47% of industrial injuries can be linked to alcohol consumption and alcoholism. According to the SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) sourcebook in 1990, problems resulting from use of alcohol and other drugs cost American businesses an estimated $81.6 billion in lost productivity due to premature death ($37 billion) and illness ($44.6 billion); 86% of these costs can be attributed to drinking problems alone. A full 75% of workers paid on an hourly basis at one manufacturing plant reported that it was easy for them to drink at their work stations, according to a study published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. This group of workers included assembly line workers, electricians and machinists. Absenteeism among alcoholics or problem drinkers is 3.8 to 8.3 times greater than normal and up to 16 times greater among all employees with alcohol and other drug-related problems, according to the US Department of Labor. According to NIDA, drug using employees take three times as many sick benefits as other workers and are five times more likely to file a worker’s compensation claim. Non-alcoholic members of alcoholics’ families use ten times as much sick leave as members of families in which alcoholism is not present (Bernstein & Mahoney, op. cit.). According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, studies suggest that employees who are pressured into treatment by their employers are slightly more likely to recover from their alcoholism and improve their performance than those who are not so pressured. Northrup Corporation saw a 43% increase in the productivity of each of its first 100 employees to enter an alcohol treatment program. After three years of sobriety, the average savings for each was nearly $20,000. In employees who received treatment of alcoholism, Oldsmobile’s Lansing, Michigan plant saw lost man hours decline by 49%, health care benefits decline by 19%, leaves by 56%, grievances by 78%, disciplinary problems by 63% and accidents by 82%.

New Vision

217-774-6436

217-774-6438