There are certain steps health care workers and medical professionals can take in the immediate aftermath of sustaining workplace injuries that can significantly improve their chances of recovering the workers’ compensation benefits for which they may be eligible. First, as soon as you are injured at work unless you absolutely need to continue attending to a patient who is in immediate danger, report the incident to your supervisor. If you must continue performing your work after being injured, as soon as you do have the opportunity to do so, report the incident.
It’s also sometimes necessary to gather certain pieces of evidence related to the incident that caused you to be harmed. For example, you may need to take pictures of the scene and document any other factors that might have played a role in your accident. For example, perhaps your accident occurred because a piece of medical equipment you were operating was defective or otherwise posed a hazard. Take pictures and make note of any such factors. Additionally, if there are any witnesses to the incident, get their names and contact information.
Next, seek medical attention for yourself as soon as possible and explain that you were injured in a workplace accident, even if you don’t believe your injuries are serious enough to justify seeking medical care. First, as a medical professional, you likely already know that just because an injury doesn’t “seem” serious at first, that doesn’t mean it’s genuinely not. You need to ensure you don’t require immediate treatment.
Seeing a doctor right away will also help when you present your case for workers’ compensation benefits. Quite simply, an insurance company is a profit-driven business, and will often look for reasons to deny your claim if doing so is possible. If you don’t see a doctor right after being injured, when you seek compensation, an insurer could argue it’s possible you were injured in an accident that occurred after the incident, when you were not on the job, and therefore you are not eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. You must be able to show that based on the timeline, it’s clear that an on-the-job incident was the cause of your injuries.
Schedule a free consultation with a Philadelphia hospital workers’ compensation attorney representing medical and health care professionals next. You shouldn’t wait too long to file a workers’ compensation claim, but you also shouldn’t immediately begin corresponding with the insurance company before you’ve had time to go over the details of your case with a lawyer. You need to avoid potentially making statements that could damage your case. A lawyer can help you in this capacity.
Prepare for your consultation by gathering any of the evidence you may have previously collected. You should also draft a narrative of the incident as you remember it. Bring this with you to the consultation. Having it on hand will prevent you from accidentally forgetting to share any important details when discussing your accident with an attorney.