What action should an employee take, if he or she were to get injured while performing a job-related responsibility?

Suggested timeline for actions

Seek treatment as soon as possible. Take steps to get seen by a doctor. In that way, an injured employee can highlight the link between the injury and the employee’s workplace.

Follow the state’s rules, when seeking medical care: Most states allow treatment in an emergency room. Some states allow the employee to see a personal physician.

Employee’s rights in ER or doctor’s office

Employee has right to share with the examining doctor any significant details about his or her medical history. The examining physician is expected to listen closely to the patient’s feedback, once the physician’s initial diagnosis has been made.

In situation where employee had lacked the ability to communicate with the doctor, a lawyer or other legal representative would have the right to contact the examining physician and share noteworthy facts about the employee’s medical history.

Actions required of employer

Employer should apply for worker’s compensation on behalf of the injured employee. Until the claim for such compensation has been accepted, the employer should cover the cost of the employee’s medical bills. That would include coverage of any visits to a specialist. Trips made to the offices of a specialist could assist with the gathering of evidence.

The employer of a large company should have the Human Resources Department handle all the paperwork. The same Department must receive the information from the employee’s doctor, and share that same information with the office that is handling the worker’s compensation claim.

By the same token, the employer’s staff could receive a call from others in the office that has been asked to handle the worker’s compensation claim. That call might represent an attempt to get confirmation of the status of the person that has sought worker’s comp coverage.

Why communication is a key issue?

Someone in a doctor’s office might make a mistake, when sharing information about a patient’s condition. That patient might be an injured employee. By the same token, someone taking a call to the employee’s company might be filling a temporary vacancy. He or she might not offer accurate information on the status of the person that has filed for worker’s comp benefits, as per Personal Injury Lawyer in Ottawa.

In either case, the break in communications should be cleared as soon as possible. The correct information should be given to the proper authority, along with an explanation of the confusion. In such situations, it helps to have a lawyer or other legal representative. A statement from some member of the legal community usually has a greater layer of veracity than one that might have come from someone else.