6 Benefits of Adding Electrotherapy to Workers’ Compensation Treatment Plans
Musculoskeletal disorders are a common result of work-related injuries. In 2016 alone, conditions of this type involving the back accounted for 38.5 percent of all work-related musculoskeletal disorders – that’s 134,550 back cases according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Adding complexity to this, workers’ compensation cases can take months or even years to resolve, making consistent treatment especially important for positive patient outcomes. Gaps in care can complicate recovery and limit visibility into patient progress.
Therapies that keep patients engaged in their treatment plans between appointments can help maintain positive momentum. Home-use electrotherapy is one such option that can be integrated alongside physical therapy, chiropractic care and other standard interventions.
If home-use electrotherapy from RS Medical is not currently part of your treatment approach, the following reasons highlight why it should be.
6 Reasons to Add the RS-4i Plus to Workers’ Compensation Treatment Plans
1. Supports Continuity of Care Outside the Clinic
Missed appointments, scheduling delays or even transitions between practitioners can introduce gaps in care during recovery. These interruptions may impact patients’ ability to manage symptoms and adhere to treatment plans.
Access to at-home therapy options, such as the RS-4i Plus, help bridge these gaps and support better patient compliance with prescribed care. This also enables practitioners to reinforce treatment plans without increasing clinic workload.
2. Addresses Pain and Muscle Function
Recovery from musculoskeletal injury typically requires both pain management and muscle treatment.
Unlike other electrotherapy devices that only offer a single type of therapy, the RS-4i Plus features a powerful combination of high-frequency Interferential therapy (IFT), which focuses on sensory nerves associated with pain, and neuromuscular stimulation (NMES), which activates muscle fibers involved in movement and stability.
Using patented Intersperse technology, the RS-4i Plus is able to insert IFT pain relief signals between muscle contractions in the NMES treatment. In this way, the patient gets intermittent contraction, then pain relief, then contraction throughout the duration of a session – enabling shorter, more comfortable and more impactful treatments.
This combined approach allows practitioners to address multiple aspects of recovery within a single prescribed therapy, which may simplify treatment planning while supporting improved outcomes.
3. Encourages Patient Compliance
Patient compliance with treatment plans is a challenge in extended workers’ compensation cases, particularly when therapies are complicated or difficult to manage independently.
The RS-4i Plus simplifies patient-managed treatments with pre-programmed sessions and can be paired with a Full Back, Low Back, or Shoulder Garment to reduce the need for placing individual electrodes every time. This allows patients to complete therapy sessions with minimal setup.
As an added bonus, the RS-4i Plus recalls the last program settings at the beginning of a new session, allowing patients to pick up where they left off during their last treatment.
4. Reduces Administrative Burden for the Practitioner
Time spent on patient instruction and device setup can place additional demands on already busy practitioners and clinic staff.
With the RS-4i Plus, patients receive personalized training from an RS Medical patient care specialist. Instruction includes proper use, treatment frequency and electrode placement based on the practitioner’s plan of care.
This support allows practitioners to maintain oversight while reducing the time required for in-clinic education.
5. Provides Documentation for Patient Progress
In workers’ compensation cases, treatment documentation often extends beyond clinical use and may be reviewed by multiple stakeholders, including attorneys and insurance representatives. As a result, detailed reporting on patient progress can play an important role in claim resolution.
Once an RS-4i Plus is prescribed, an RS Medical patient care specialist collects baseline and follow up patient assessments that track changes in pain levels, functional activity and quality of life measures like sleep and mood. These structured reports are made available to the prescribing practitioner and can be incorporated into chart notes and used to monitor progress over time.
6. Access to Educational Resources and Ongoing Support
Patients often require support outside of scheduled appointments, especially when managing therapy independently at home.
On-demand educational materials, including pad placement guides and product instructions, are freely accessible to patients on RS Medical’s website any time of the day or night. These tools help simplify treatment sessions and promote device use that follows protocols, leading to long-term compliance and ultimately improved patient outcomes.
A Closer Look at the RS-4i Plus
The RS-4i Plus, is an advanced home-use electrotherapy device that combines Interferential Therapy (IFT) and Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) in a unique 35-minute treatment called Intersperse.
What is Interferential Therapy (IFT)? Interferential Therapy (IFT) is used for pain relief and works by overlapping two slightly different high-frequency signals, for instance 5000 Hz and 5150 Hz. These signals intersect within the body to create an area of interference – a “sweet spot” where the therapeutic benefit is strongest. This intersection of signals results in a new frequency – the beat frequency – which is able to recruit the maximum number of A-beta nerve fibers for treatment. These high-frequency signals also trigger the body’s production of enkephalins, short-chain peptides (endogenous opiates) that provide pain relief lasting about 1 hour.
What is Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES)? Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) is used for muscle stimulation and causes lower motor neurons to fire. RS Medical uses an adjustable, custom square/asymmetrical spiked waveform with a frequency of 71 Hz that is able to activate both fast and slow-twitch muscle fibers. Being able to stimulate a broader range of muscle fibers, especially large stabilizing muscles in the legs and the back, allows the RS-4i Plus to elicit a maximal muscle contraction – which expels metabolic waste and supplies a flow of oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the muscles.
What is Intersperse? Intersperse is a patented treatment session in the RS-4i Plus that intermixes premodulated IFT and NMES. During this session, pain relief signals are delivered during the relax period of muscle stimulation – giving the patient a repeating pattern of intermittent contraction, then pain relief, then contraction. This unique intermixing of IFT pain treatment and NMES muscle therapy sends a sequence of signals up the neo and paleo spinothalamic tracts into the brain and provokes a beta-endorphin release. These are long-chain peptides (endogenous opiates) that provide pain relief lasting up to 8 hours.
The Proof is in the Numbers
Since 2015, RS Medical has been tracking RS-4i Plus Personalized Patient Assessments using a survey that incorporates the Defense & Veterans Pain Rating Scale (DVPRS). In that time, we’ve collected results from over 30,000 patients that reveal:
84% of patients report a significant reduction in pain
45% of patients report that their pain was cut in half
33% of patients report pain relief lasting 8 hours or more
On average, patients report pain relief lasting 4.6 hours
Take the Next Step
Practitioners
If you are interested in a more detailed review of the RS-4i Plus mechanisms of action and clinical evidence, we invite you to request a demonstration.
Patients
The RS-4i Plus requires a prescription. If you are interested in discussing this drug-free pain relief solution with your healthcare practitioner, download our patient discussion guide to help start a conversation.