Chemical abuse rehabilitation for hospital employees: examination of benefit usage when referred by an employee assistance professional.

1. Chemical abuse is the third leading health problem in the United States. Approximately 7 million workers are addicted to chemicals. 2. There is a relationship between chemical abuse and poor job performance (decreased productivity and efficiency, tardiness) and excessive use of sick time, disability, and workers' compensation. 3. An equivalent quasi-experimental design with a control group was used to examine benefit usage pre- and post-chemical abuse rehabilitation. Wilcoxon's signed rank test demonstrated sick time, late arrival/early departure, and absent time were not comparable before rehabilitation, but became similar after rehabilitation. 4. The researcher concluded that chemically dependent hospital employees who are referred and complete an inpatient rehabilitation program will experience benefit usage comparable to the employee population without recognized chemical abuse.