Treating injured workers presents unique challenges for healthcare professionals

At some point in their medical practice, most healthcare workers will treat a patient who was injured on the job.

But many doctors, physicians’ assistants and nurses find that while they can help these patients with their medical problems and physical recovery, treating someone with a work injury presents a unique set of challenges – not all of them medical. 

Indeed, injured workers and their families must deal with a host of issues as they try to heal and rebuild their lives after being hurt on the job. There are emotional and financial burdens, and a seemingly endless amount of bureaucratic red tape to navigate when filing a workers’ compensation claim.

Additionally, injured workers face tremendous external pressure from family members, coworkers, employers and insurance companies to return to work so they can start earning a paycheck again. It’s also not unusual for injured workers to pressure themselves to return to work before they’re physically ready because they feel obligated to do so or feel “less than” because they’re out of work and collecting unemployment benefits. 

When we started the Deuterman Law Group six years ago, one of our founding principles was that we would treat clients as people, not as cases, and that we would attend to the whole person. It’s our job to ensure not only that our clients receive the maximum workers’ compensation and medical benefits available to them, but also to assist them as they adjust to a new “normal” following an injury.

I believe that most healthcare professionals who are treating injured workers want the same for these patients and realize that their obligation to them extends beyond providing basic medical care. But workers’ compensation isn’t taught in medical school, so most doctors, nurses and medical office staff don’t know how else they can help these patients. And they may also be unaware of additional services available to injured workers – at no extra cost to the patient – as a result of their workers’ compensation benefits.

Given these realities, I thought it would be helpful to write a couple of blog postings explaining some of the intricacies of workers' compensation laws in North Carolina. My aim is to give healthcare providers information and extra tools that will help them when treating injured and disabled workers.

Injured workers should also take note of these tips as they include information about some of the additional benefits that are available to them under the law.

Keep checking back at the blog throughout the week; I'll be posting new tips each day.

Here's the first tip:

• If a patient comes to you with an injury resulting from an accident at work or a chronic condition that was likely caused by their job, encourage that person to report the injury, if he or she hasn’t already done so. Ideally, work injuries should be reported immediately to the employer and the N.C. Industrial Commission and, in any event, within 30 days of the accident or diagnosis that the condition is work-related.