Work Related Injury/Workers Comp?

[ultrarunner]

Last week I injured my left foot plantar fascia at work. The pain would be controlled with ibuprofen and more by keeping weight off the foot.

Last weekend was a very busy work project weekend with 11 straight days on the job to get it all done.

Charge nurse saw me limping Monday morning and asked if it was continuation from last week… I said yes and she said please get it checked out and gave me crutches which helped a lot… thing is the moment I was seen with crutches it became a big deal and work injury report filed. I’ve never missed a day of work in 34 years with sickness or injury.

I always remember my High School Coach’s words never quit and followed by walk it off…

Doc said 1 week off work to rest with back to work restrictions.

Seen using crutches has triggered all kinds of paperwork, reports from multiple departments and is creating hardships for the team affecting operations.

Workers comp kicks in on the 4th of my 5 days off… so vacation PTO for the first 3.

I learned standard practice is to disable employee badge and network access… it sucks because I have staff, vendors and contractors calling me at home because they can’t reach me.

Maybe a better plan would have been requesting this week off for R&R and avoiding the entire reporting work injury thing?

When the doc came to interview me it sounded almost like being deposed… she finished by saying given age and years of service have I thought about retirement?

Anyone have work related injury advice?

 

[oldnslo]

Approximately 25 years ago had work related injury that required trip to ER. Took over six months of arguing with workman’s comp insurance to get bills paid and my credit semi-restored since ALL of the bills were in my name and against my personal (company) insurance.

My advice is keep copies of ALL correspondence to cover your butt..

Wishing you a speedy recovery

 

[MossRoad]

....

Anyone have work related injury advice?

First, hope you recover quickly!
Second, you asked, so here goes...

Several years back I got my hand smashed in a piece of malfunctioning equipment at work. It happened at work, so it was a work related injury. I took the work related injury path as was required, was made whole again, was declared 10% permanently disabled in that hand, and returned to work a couple months later on light duty for two more months. They held my job position and found plenty for me to do until I was declared OK by the surgeon to go back to full duty. All the bills were paid, rehab was paid, etc... no insurance involved, no deductible. No sick time. No vacation time. 100% covered by my employer.

Back in March, I started having problems with my back. It got progressively worse. It happened over a long period of time, and I did not think it was work related at all. My spine was deteriorating. So I had to go the non-work related injury route. I had to pay my deductible, take personal time for Dr visits, etc... we decided to do surgery.... in January. So, had to pay another deductible because of new year. Had to take 5 sick days before paid leave took effect. They'll only hold my current position for 3 months. If I go longer than that, they have the option to bring me back in a different position or even termination.

To summarize....
- Work related injury 100% covered by employer. No risk of job loss.
- Non-work related injury I'm out two deductibles, 4-5 sick days last year, 5 sick days this year, and risk losing employment.

Not saying any of that will happen to you. I really admire your work ethic. I know from our conversations that it means something to you. But man, if you got injured at work, you should have reported it immediately, or as soon as you recognized it was work related. That's how it's supposed to work. If you are sick, you take sick days. You don't take vacation days for illness unless you are out of sick days.

Think of it this way... you take pride in not missing a day of work due to illness or injury, but you'd take vacation days because you're injured? Why? You'd never be able to tell anyone you've never missed a day of work due to illness or injury ever again either way. So why not take the sick day? It's all semantics. You were still not at work due to an injury.

As for the paperwork, my boss jokingly told me years ago, if I get hurt at work, please go home and tell them it happened there, because he was gonna have to spend countless hours on paperwork.


I was just told by my surgeon yesterday I'll need 6 more weeks off. That puts me 3-4 days short of possibly losing my position or job. Fortunately for me, several people retired while I was gone, a bunch of people shifted positions, and they called me two weeks ago and gave me a raise and promotion effective immediately and are looking forward to my speedy recovery, see you in mid April.

Again, good luck on a speedy recovery.

 

[ultrarunner]

Thank you for the good wishes… as long as I keep weight off it I’m good.

I’m missing 3 days work but they are counted as PTO days taken from my earned vacation time.

There is actually no wage compensation since return to work is Monday with restriction.

I did have x-rays and 20 minutes with a Nurse Practitioner covered with no co-pay

It does seem a lot of people involved based on the emails generated.

 

[ultrarunner]

First, hope you recover quickly!
Second, you asked, so here goes...

Several years back I got my hand smashed in a piece of malfunctioning equipment at work. It happened at work, so it was a work related injury. I took the work related injury path as was required, was made whole again, was declared 10% permanently disabled in that hand, and returned to work a couple months later on light duty for two more months. They held my job position and found plenty for me to do until I was declared OK by the surgeon to go back to full duty. All the bills were paid, rehab was paid, etc... no insurance involved, no deductible. No sick time. No vacation time. 100% covered by my employer.

Back in March, I started having problems with my back. It got progressively worse. It happened over a long period of time, and I did not think it was work related at all. My spine was deteriorating. So I had to go the non-work related injury route. I had to pay my deductible, take personal time for Dr visits, etc... we decided to do surgery.... in January. So, had to pay another deductible because of new year. Had to take 5 sick days before paid leave took effect. They'll only hold my current position for 3 months. If I go longer than that, they have the option to bring me back in a different position or even termination.

To summarize....
- Work related injury 100% covered by employer. No risk of job loss.
- Non-work related injury I'm out two deductibles, 4-5 sick days last year, 5 sick days this year, and risk losing employment.

Not saying any of that will happen to you. I really admire your work ethic. I know from our conversations that it means something to you. But man, if you got injured at work, you should have reported it immediately, or as soon as you recognized it was work related. That's how it's supposed to work. If you are sick, you take sick days. You don't take vacation days for illness unless you are out of sick days.

Think of it this way... you take pride in not missing a day of work due to illness or injury, but you'd take vacation days because you're injured? Why? You'd never be able to tell anyone you've never missed a day of work due to illness or injury ever again either way. So why not take the sick day? It's all semantics. You were still not at work due to an injury.

As for the paperwork, my boss jokingly told me years ago, if I get hurt at work, please go home and tell them it happened there, because he was gonna have to spend countless hours on paperwork.


I was just told by my surgeon yesterday I'll need 6 more weeks off. That puts me 3-4 days short of possibly losing my position or job. Fortunately for me, several people retired while I was gone, a bunch of people shifted positions, and they called me two weeks ago and gave me a raise and promotion effective immediately and are looking forward to my speedy recovery, see you in mid April.

Again, good luck on a speedy recovery.

Apparantly California Law is first 3 days are on the employee before wage compensation kicks in.

You are right about paperwork as just from what I can see on my side… division VP, regional, admin, employee health, etc are all involved…

Me not being at work today resulted in the hospital administrator’s very rare vacation starting today being cancelled and co-workers getting called last night to report early… etc… the ripple affect.

I’ve got the max accrued for PTO of 420 hours so not really a hit but I agree… if I was told take a few days off the process would have been likely the same without all the added involvement/expense of so many others… maybe not working so many back to back with deadlines factored too?

I did report it the morning it happened but said I’m sure I will feel better after a good night’s rest and and I did but by mid morning it was starting to flare up…

It was seeing me using crutches yesterday that changed everything.

I know back injuries are very tricky… thankfully with time many do well. Hand injuries we see a lot of as patients and limited dexterity affects many things.

The more I learn the more I realize how little I know…

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

I wish you a speedy recovery!

 

[George2615]

I wish you a speedy recovery. I got injured on the job several years ago. Collected workers comp for about a week and was cleared to return to work. When I retired (after 38 years combined at two hospitals) I had 60 days of sick time (ELA extended leave acct.) and 32 days vacation accumulated. Things at the hospital have changed over the years so very similar to your situation using PTO first. Many benefits have been cut back. Maybe its time you think about your retirement options.

 

[2manyrocks]

You might remember the great running back named Eddie George. As I recall, he was pretty much unstoppable until he suffered an injury to his big toe.

It would be a shame if you kept pushing yourself to the point that your foot doesn't heal properly and that ends up adversely affecting your ability to do what you want when you choose to retire.

 

[drssg]

My personal experience is limited to third-party observations. I suspect that the reason you see such a complicated procedure and the deposition is that plenty of people view a workplace injury in a completely different light than you. For some, it is a good excuse for a nice long paid vacation, or even a good payout.

I have a nephew who is quite frankly a stupid lazy selfish liar. He injured his shoulder at work and required surgery to repair it. It was actually an old injury, and he had the same surgery during high school, due to a fight with another kid.

His employer's response was to have him come back to work for "light duty," which essentially means that he sits around and does nothing all day for full pay. Someone got him in touch with a lawyer, who advised him against doing that. He got fired for refusing to come into work, but he still managed to ride out a workman's comp claim for over a year.

 

[2manyrocks]

Workers comp is controlled by statute. For sure, it has its own rules.

I can't overstate that a foot injury is serious because all of your weight being on it as you walk plus the shock load.