Getting injured hurts, and getting injured at work can be especially painful. Work injuries that affect individuals’ ability to perform their jobs can affect not just their physical health but may have far-reaching impacts.
Schedule an appointmentWorkplace injuries can be both traumatic and repetitive use or overuse injuries, meaning the risk of sustaining an injury increases as the physical demands of the job increase. However, slips, falls, and other injuries can occur in any work setting, including sedentary or office jobs.
Slips and falls are the most common mechanism of on-the-job injuries, and the hands are the most commonly injured body part. Specific common workplace injuries include:
Workplace injuries are treated with physical therapy much like any other musculoskeletal injury. Physical therapists are considered the movement experts in the medical field and are trained in treating individuals with all types of pain and dysfunction.
Physical therapists act to reduce acute pain and inflammation from the injury and improve range of motion and strength of affected joints or body parts. Skilled manual therapy and early functional exercises completed in physical therapy have been shown to help individuals recover more quickly from work-related injuries.
Overall, physical therapists help people who have had an injury return to the same level of function they were performing before sustaining the injury. In short, physical therapists help people get back to their “100%”. Physical therapy is a crucial element of the care plan for any Worker’s Compensation injury claim.
Some goals set forth for you in physical therapy are based on the physical demands of your job. To best care for you and allow you to return safely to performing job functions, work conditioning is often beneficial following the initial course of physical therapy.
What does the claims process look like?
If you get injured at work, your first step is to notify a supervisor or HR representative at your employer. Your injury claim will be reviewed and assigned a claim number once accepted by your employer’s worker’s compensation insurance carrier.
The insurance carrier pays all applicable medical bills related to your injury via that claim number. Injured workers bear no out-of-pocket cost for treatments received for the on-the-job injury.
After filing an injury claim, the first medical provider you will see will be a physician. This can be at an ER, Urgent Care, Occupational Health facility, or another setting. Often, unless there is a medical or musculoskeletal emergency, such as a broken bone that needs to be set, physical therapy is prescribed early on in the case. Ample research has shown a significant benefit to early initiation of physical therapy for all musculoskeletal injuries, especially in a Worker’s Compensation injury claim.
After your injury claim is reviewed and approved, you will be assigned a claims representative or a case manager. This individual serves as your main point of contact for answering questions and coordinating your care needed to help you return to a full recovery. Physical and occupational therapists communicate regularly with your claims representative or case manager to update them on progress, assist, and advocate on your behalf to ensure the best recovery.
created with
Website Builder Software .
