If you’ve been hurt at work in Virginia, there are three steps to follow:
In this blog series, we’ll break down what to do in each step to set you up for success in your worker’s compensation claim. The first week, we covered how to tell your boss that you’ve been injured at work. This week, we’re covering how to tell a doctor that you’ve been injured at work.
After you tell your boss that you’ve been injured, your employer will give you a panel of at least three (3) doctors to treat your injury. You’ll choose one (1) of those three to treat you. The physician who treats you may send you to other physicians for additional treatment, such as if you need an additional specialty. A family medicine doctor, for example, may refer you to an orthopedic surgeon to make sure that a wrist injury isn’t something more serious that would need surgery.
If your work does not give you a choice of doctors, you can choose your own doctor. Depending on the injury, you may or may not want to use your own primary care doctor. You may need a specialist to treat the injury so that it is properly taken care of. If you have a primary care doctor and want a recommendation for a specialist, many times they can provide a recommendation using a secure online messaging system or over the phone.
Just like when you are telling your boss what happened, tell the doctor exactly what occurred. Don’t speculate about what might have been done to prevent the injury, or who might be at fault. Don’t try to hide anything.
Tell the doctor what part of your body is injured and how it got hurt. If one part hurt more at first and another part hurts more now, tell them. If the pain is getting worse, let them know. Don’t try to be tough and pretend that an injury is less serious than it is; similarly, don’t try to make an injury seem worse than it is.
It’s difficult if you’re in pain and scared, but try to stay calm so you can clearly answer all of the doctor’s questions in full.
If the injury was severe and you had an ambulance take you to get medical care, or you otherwise went to the emergency room because you could not wait to be treated, let the emergency workers know that you were injured at work.
After you have gone to the doctor and let them know exactly what happened, call HammondTownsend at 888-580-9048 for a free case evaluation to start the next step in the worker’s comp claim process.