Announcement WorkSafeNB’s Rehabilitation Centre awarded accreditation

August 10, 2016

WorkSafeNB’s Rehabilitation Centre (WRC) received a three-year accreditation from CARF International – its highest level of accreditation – citing its exceptional client service in helping workers safely return to work after an injury.

CARF (Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities) International is widely acknowledged as the global gold standard in accreditation of rehabilitation facilities. It accredits more than 50,000 programs and services at 23,000 locations around the world.

Last month, three CARF surveyors visited the WRC, located near Grand Bay-Westfield, for two days and came away impressed with the centre’s staff, programs and approach to helping clients in their journey back to work.

“This achievement is an indication of your organization’s dedication and commitment to improving the quality of the lives of the persons served,” stated Brian Boon, president and CEO of CARF Canada. “Services, personnel and documentation clearly indicate an established pattern of conformance to standards.”

Gerard Adams, president and CEO of WorkSafeNB, said the accreditation acknowledges what he’s known all along.

“Our staff are caring and passionate about what they do,” he said. “Receiving this accreditation is a great achievement for the WRC and WorkSafeNB as a whole, and moves us closer toward our organizational goal of service excellence.”

“This achievement demonstrates our commitment to service excellence for the injured workers of New Brunswick,” said Tim Petersen, vice-president of WorkSafeNB’s corporate services. “This is made possible through the dedication and hard work of all staff at the WRC.”

Here are some of the highlights from the CARF report:

• The organization’s core value, “the client is the priority,” is clearly evident in all aspects. Reinforcing this core value leads to creating an exceptional service experience for the clients.
• The experience of the staff members in the field of occupational rehabilitation program and vocational evaluation services contributes to the high quality of care provided to the clients.
• In addition to satisfaction surveys and suggestion boxes, client-focus groups are regularly conducted by the program manager with the purpose of ensuring that clients feel welcome to the programs, identifying accessibility challenges and opportunities, and sharing information and ideas with clients.
• The physical plant for the occupational rehabilitation program is clean, well maintained and comfortable and appears to be safe for the clients and staff members.
• The occupational rehabilitation program employs staff members who are enthusiastic and motivated to provide quality rehabilitation care.
• The clients in the occupational rehabilitation program express satisfaction with the staff members and state the staff members are caring, helpful and accessible.
• The clients express great satisfaction with the experiences they have had working with therapists in the vocational assessment program. The therapists are compassionate, intuitive, well organized and understanding, and made the clients feel very comfortable.

Founded in 1966 as the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, CARF International is an independent, non-profit accreditor of health and human services. CARF-accredited service providers have demonstrated the highest levels of care and attention toward persons served.