Injured At Work? A Workers' Comp Doctor Can Help You Get Well

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Accidents and injuries in the workplace are common. Every year, it is estimated that there are 2.3 million workplace accidents or illnesses globally.

These may include simple trips and falls that cause minor injuries, or they cause major life-changing injuries.

Some accidents are due to poor training and support, while others might be down to a lack of adequate health and safety procedures. Sometimes there may have been no assessments of risks or a severe lack of overall consideration to employee health and safety on the part of the company.

Whenever there is a workplace injury, a proper assessment needs to be made of the cause of the injury. It’s essential that workplaces need to work out how to prevent this type of accident from happening again.

If you’ve been injured in an accident at work, your employer’s workers’ compensation policy should cover the treatment. The insurance policy will allow you to receive the treatment you need to get back to work as soon as possible. Choosing the right medical practice is critical so that you can receive the right treatment for your injury.

In this article, we’ll be exploring several different questions. What are the most common work-related injuries? What can you do to avoid these? What are your employer’s responsibilities with regards to protecting you from these risks? If you’ve suffered an injury as a result of a workplace accident, what can you do about? Learn about what to expect when you visit a medical practice that specializes in treats injuries from work accident.

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What Are The Most Common Work-Related Injuries?

According to the National Safety Council, every 7 seconds someone is injured on the job. However, injuries caused by accidents in the workplace are always avoidable.

The top three injuries that keep workers away from their jobs include:

Injuries that are caused by over-exertion account for a total of 31% lost workdays. This type of injury can be caused by lifting and lowering heavy items as well as carrying out repetitive motions.

26% of all of the lost workdays are caused by injuries involving objects or equipment. This may mean the worked getting trapped, crushed, pressed, or struck by an item or piece of machinery.

Slips, trips, and falls in the workplace cause a total of 26% of all lost workdays.

Which Industries Are Most Affected By Workplace Injuries?

There are different risks involved depending on the workplace. For example, you’d expect that office workers should see a lot less risk than people working in manual roles. However, it is essential that in all workplaces where there is a high risk of injury, that businesses take the right measures to protect their workers.

The workplaces that see the highest level of work-related injuries include:

Aside from these areas of industry, it is important to understand that workplace accidents can happen in any sector. This includes areas such as office work and retail.

What Causes Overexertion Injuries?

With the highest percentage of injuries being caused by overexertion, let’s explore what causes this type of injury, and what can be done by both the employee and the employer to lower the risk.

What Are The Most Common Symptoms Of Overexertion?

Overexertion injuries will typically result in a strain or a torn muscle, ligament, or tendon. These could be to any part of the body including arms, legs, neck, or shoulders.

However, many of the most common injuries associated with overexertion are to the back.

Back Pain

Where these injuries affect the back, they can be quite problematic, debilitating, and can prevent someone from working or enjoying their usual life. It can stop you from being able to sleep and can affect your quality of life.

Back pain caused by overexertion may be related to spinal injuries. Slipped, herniated, or prolapsed discs can be severely painful to anyone who has them, and treatment can not only be costly, it can take a long time.

Firstly, a doctor will need to make a full assessment of your back using X-rays, MRI, or CT scans. From this, they will be able to find out the extent of your back pain and place you on a treatment plan.

Treatment may include the use of anti-inflammatories or muscle relaxants. Anti-inflammatories may need to be injected to have the maximum effect.

Your doctor may also recommend physical therapy. This might include strength-building exercises that help you to regain your movement.

Other physical therapy treatments may include heat, massage, electrical stimulation, and ultrasound. These types of therapy and designed to increase blood flow around the inflamed area to speed up the healing process.

How Are Overexertion Injuries Caused?

Typically these types of overexertion injuries are caused by lifting, carrying, pulling, or pushing heavy or bulky items.

It might be down to poor posture when lifting and carrying, or it could be because of a lack of support or lifting equipment.

How Can Employees Prevent This Type Of Injury?

As overexertion injuries are the most common types of a work-related injury, it is essential that all employees are mindful of this fact and are aware of the best practices for moving heavy or bulky objects.

Assess The Load And The Route

Firstly, assess the weight and the size of the load that you’re moving to. Can this be done alone, or do you need to get assistance? Also, are there any tools or equipment that you can make use of that will help you? These might include trolleys, pump-trucks, or lifting gear.

Secondly, look at where you are taking the item. Is there a clear route? Are there any obstacles along the route? Do you need to worry about stairways or door frames? Are there different levels of floor involved?

Preparation Of The Route

Make sure that you make all of the necessary preparations on the route to make carrying the item as easy as possible. Once you have made these assessments, you’ll be able to start lifting and carrying the object.

Safe Lifting And Carrying

If you are lifting it, keep your back straight at all times. Lower yourself down with your feet flat on the floor and make sure that you grip the item well. Try and carry the item in a way that gives the best balance of weight. If all of the weight is to one side, this may cause an accident or injury.

Take breaks as needed, and don’t rush. If you need to readjust your balance or your hold on the item, place the item down and pick it back up again.

If you are lifting and carrying with the assistance of others, check that everyone else is safe and that they are comfortable with the load.

What Are Employers Responsibilities In Preventing Overexertion?

While employees carrying out this type of work will need to take measures to keep themselves safe and avoid injuries, the employer is responsible for making sure that this happens.

There are several ways that an employer should work to keep their employees safe from overexertion injuries.

Risk Assessments To Identify Causes Of Overexertion

The first step that all employers should take is to carry out a full assessment. This will look at the type of work that may need to be carried out, work out who will do it, where it will be done, and explore the tools and resources that are available to prevent accidents and injuries.

Risk assessments should be carried out periodically, particularly if there are any changes to the workplace. By carrying out a risk assessment, employers should be identifying areas that are causes for concern. These must then be addressed.

Employee Training

In addition to a risk assessment, an employer’s duty of care to their employees should be to ensure that they have all of the necessary training needed so that they can do their jobs safely.

Training should be thorough, documented, and reviewed regularly. Where required, an employer should seek external advice from specialist health and safety training providers to get the right resources and support for their teams.

Investing In Equipment

If there will be extensive tasks that require moving and carrying large or heavy items, the right equipment should be provided to all employees to help them to carry out their job.

This could mean trolleys for moving items, pallet trucks, harnesses, and pulleys, or forklift trucks. There should be a sufficient amount of equipment to match the size of the team who will need it as well as the workload.

Where equipment is provided, the team will need to be trained to specifically use each item in a safe way.

There should also be regular inspections of the items to make sure that they are fit for use. And any equipment should be serviced often and be well-maintained.

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Work-Rated Injuries Associated With Repetitive Motions

Just because you don’t work in physically demanding roles, it doesn’t mean that you’re exempt from injuries. Repetitive strain injuries (RSI) are an extremely commonplace injury.

The following job roles require workers to carry out repetitive tasks.

Of course, there are plenty of other roles where people may develop injuries over a long period of time by carrying out the same task over-and-over.

What Are The Different Types Of Repetitive Strain Injury?

Tennis Elbow

You’ve probably heard of epicondylitis under its more commonly used name, Tennis Elbow. This is where the tendons that connect the muscles in the forearm with the outside of your elbow become inflamed.

Tennis elbow can be very painful. If it’s not treated quickly, it can leave lasting damage to the muscles and the tendons.

The types of roles in which people may be most at risk of developing tennis elbow include painters and decorators, plumbers, butchers, and carpenters. The condition is caused when your elbow is overloaded while carrying out repeated motions.

The early-warning signs that you may have tennis elbow include losing the strength in your grip, coupled with having pain on the outside of the elbow.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

One of the most common repetitive strain injuries is carpal tunnel syndrome. This affects between 4-10 million people throughout the United States. One of the most frequent causes of this type of injury is the repetitive motions associated with typing on a keyboard or using a computer mouse.

If your job requires you to type a lot, then you’re at high risk of developing carpal tunnel. For example, the average person types at around 41 words per minute; however, a professional typist may type at anywhere between 65-75 words. Over the course of a day, this amounts to hundreds of thousands of keystrokes.

Over a long period of time, this repeated motion can cause swelling in the wrist. The injury is caused by pressure placed on the nerves in the wrists. This pressure will cause swelling on the nerves and tendons that are associated with flexing your fingers. As these nerves pass through the narrow carpal tunnel in your wrist, the swelling will cause pain, weakness, and numbness.

The early warning signs of carpal tunnel syndrome include tingling in your fingers or difficulties when picking up objects.

Tendinitis

One repetitive strain injury that can be caused by repetitive tasks, particularly ones that require overhead lifting, is tendinitis.

Tendinitis occurs when one of your tendons connecting your muscle and bone becomes inflamed. The symptoms associated with tendinitis include swelling and tenderness around where the tendon attached to the muscle.

Bursitis

Cushioning your muscles, bones, and tendons you have fluid-filled sacks. These are called your bursae. Bursitis is a condition brought on by these sacs becoming inflamed. This is often around the shoulder, hip, or elbow. However, it can happen around any join that carries out repeated motions, including knees or toes when they are used to operate the pedals on machinery.

Other Forms Of Repetitive Strain Injury

There are several other forms of repetitive strain injury that may be common in the workplace. These include:

How Can Employees Avoid Repetitive Strain Injuries?

Employees should be mindful of any pain, numbness, or tingling sensations that they have in any part of their body caused by carrying out a repeated action.

Take breaks away from equipment or computers. If you can manage your own workload, alternate tasks so that you’re not stuck doing the same thing all day.

How Can Employers Help Prevent Repetitive Strain Injuries?

Preventing repetitive strain injuries in the workplace should be of significant importance to employers. After all, if they have staff who are off work due to injuries, or that are unable to carry out their duties properly, it will affect productivity.

There are several ways that employers can reduce risks and help prevent repetitive strain injuries. The most significant things that can be done include investing in ergonomic workplaces.

This means buying suitable adjustable chairs that provide the right working posture. Choosing ergonomically designed technology such as keyboards will help reduce the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome, desks that allow employees to be able to reach their keyboards comfortably, and well-positioned monitors that are free from glare that can be angled well.

In addition to providing the right equipment for the job, employers should also be providing training that encourages working techniques that prevent this type of injury from happening.

If someone is likely to be on a repeated task for too long, managers need to factor this in and switch up the types of duty that employees are on.

What Common Work-Related Injuries Are Caused By Contact With Objects?

Injuries caused by contact with other objects could include any of the following:

Where a moving object hits a worker
Where a worker is injured through vibration from equipment
Where a worker is injured as a result of pressure or friction
Where a worker bumps into, steps on, kicks, or is pushed or thrown onto an object or equipment
Where a worker’s body has been squeezed, crushed, or compressed in between moving objects, equipment, or stationary objects.
Where a worker is struck, crushed, or caught under a collapsed structure, or equipment

Many of these types of injuries will occur in heavy industries such as manufacturing, construction, or in sectors such as shipping where there is a reliance on heavy machinery and there is a lot of moving objects.

What Type Of Work-Related Injuries Involve Contact With Objects?

When coming into contact with objects in the workplace, there are numerous injuries that a worker could be faced with. Some of these can be significant. These might include:

How Can Employees Prevent Injuries Caused By Contact With Objects?

One of the main ways that workers can stay safe from injuries caused by contact with objects is to pay full and proper attention to their surroundings. Distractions can cause injuries, as can inappropriate behavior in the workplace.

If you’re operating any type of machinery, it is essential to pay full attention. Similarly, if you are near machinery that someone else is operating, you need to stay alert.

Here are several key ways that you can stay safe from injury through contact with objects:

Don’t use any equipped that you have not received training for
Secure and loose materials
Secure items stored at height
Keep heavy objects stored on, or close to the ground
Check any work vehicles are safe before driving them
Wear personal protective equipment that is supplied and advised. This might include hard hats and steel-toe capped boots.
Don’t overload trolleys or cages so that you cannot see where you’re going
Walk behind moving equipment
Check all of the safety devices on your equipment before use
When approaching large machinery that is in operation, make eye contact with the operator
Taking care when turning corners and around doorways to allow for moving objects

How Can Employers Prevent Injuries Caused By Contact With Objects?

Employers have a duty of care to protect their workers and to prevent injuries that are caused by contact with objects. Here’s how every business should protect their employees from these types of common work-related injuries.

Carry Out A Risk Assessment

Again, the first stage in preventing accidents in the workplace will be to carry out full risk assessments of all machinery, equipment, storage areas, and anything else that may move, or come into contact with a team member.

The risk assessment should consider every possible risk surrounding every piece of equipment. When assessing risk, the likelihood of an accident occurring should be considered, as well as the type of injuries that may be sustained.

Take Preventative Steps

Consider what protective equipment is needed for each and every area of your business, and then make sure that there is an adequate supply and that it is well maintained.

Decide whether there need to be warning signs or demarkations put into place to warn people of potential hazards.

Think about putting restrictions into place over who can enter certain areas.

Carry Out Regular Inspections & Maintenance

Machine failure and neglected equipment are often the cause of these types of work-related injuries. It is essential that every piece of equipment or machinery throughout the company is visually inspected daily, and receives routine testing by a qualified engineer on a regular basis.

If there is a fault with any appliances, then these should not be used until they have been repaired. Where possible, they should be completely removed from service until this is possible. If this can’t be done, it will need to be labelled clearly as out of action.

All equipment should be maintained to a safe working standard. There should be a fault reporting system in place so that maintenance issues can be logged, tracked, and dealt with accordingly.

Team Training

Before employees are allowed to use any equipment there needs to be full training provided. This should include a strong focus on the safety concerns surrounding using the equipment.

This should be reviewed regularly and revisited throughout the worker’s time with the company. As new equipment is added, additional training will be required.

What Common Work-Related Injuries Are Caused By Slips, Trips, and Falls?

Slips, trips, and falls in the workplace account for 26% of all injuries. The type of injuries that could be sustained through this type of accident include:

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How Do Slips, Trips, And Falls Happen In The Workplace?

Slips, trips, and falls can be caused by a number of different things. Some of the most common reasons that people fall in work include:

Generally, poor housekeeping is always at the heart of a trip, slip, or fall injury. Typically, this type of accident could be avoided by providing an employer takes the right care and attention to prevent it.

How Can Workers Prevent Slips, Trips, And Falls In The Workplace?

Slips, trips, and falls can be avoided if workers are alert and careful.

Every employee should make sure that they are doing the following to keep themselves, and other members of the team safe from slips, trips, and falls.

How Can Employers Prevent Injuries Caused By Slips, Trips, and Falls?

To prevent workplace injuries caused by slips, trips, and falls, employers need to carry out a series of safety measures.

Risk Assessment

A risk assessment looking into points that may cause workers to slip, trip or fall should be carried out regularly. This will identify any defects in the flooring that needs fixing, along with any lighting problems.

A risk assessment should also help to identify the need for signage to be put up warning people of potential hazards that may cause them to fall.

Inspection, Repair, And Maintenance

Where there is a risk of a slip, trip, or fall injury, it is essential that employers carry out routine inspections and repair any parts of the floor that may cause people to slip or trip.

Employers have a duty to replace any broken lighting as quickly as possible.

In addition to this, if there are any leaks in the roof, the employer should address these before they become a slip hazard.

There are, of course, other forms of accidents that could occur in the workplace. These include:

Team Training

As part of an employer’s duty of care, they need to carry out team training to prevent slips, trips, and falls. This should cover best practice for workers on how to avoid being in an accident, and how they can help to prevent others from being in one.

As with all other types of team training, it is important that this is reviewed and updated often.

There are, of course, other forms of accidents that could occur in the workplace. These include:

Other Workplace Accidents

There are, of course, other forms of accidents that could occur in the workplace. These include:

Accidents in these areas could cause a wide range of injuries from mild to fatal.

Again, workers and employers need to be aware of the types of accidents that could cause injury in these areas.

Employers need to have policies and procedures in place for all eventualities.

There should always be training that covers any risk found in the business. This essential health and safety training should be delivered before an employee actually starts working for an organization. And management should be trained on how to handle a work-placed injury should one arise.

What Should Your Employer Do If You Are Injured In The Workplace?

As soon as possible after the accident has occurred, your employer should ensure you get medical treatment as quickly as possible. This may mean calling an ambulance or providing first aid.

Your employer should make sure that the area is cleared and any potential risk of further injury to anyone is removed.

Following on from an accident in the workplace, an employer needs to fill out an accident report form. This will be a lasting record of the details of the accident. This should be done as soon after the accident as physically possible.

After the accident report is filed, the employer should review it and look at ways to prevent further injuries in the same way.

What You Should Do If You Have Been Injured In The Workplace?

In the first instance, following an accident in the workplace, you should alert your employers. This should be done as soon after an accident as possible.

Medical bills can be expensive following any type of accident. A workers’ comp lawyer will help you claim any damages that are owed to you as a result of your work-related injury.

Often, claims can be made out of court. However, having the right legal support will mean that you get the full amount owed to you.

If you have been injured in the workplace, you’ll need to get the right medical care and attention. With these types of common work-related injuries, you’ll need a workers’ comp doctor that specializes in providing the right treatment.

Getting Proper Treatment For Your Work-Related Injury

Diagnosis

Typically a medical practice begins by diagnosing injuries from workplace accidents.You might need an X-ray, MRI, or CT scan to determine the type and severity of your injury. These Diagnostic Testing tools allow doctors to check for problems, including broken bones and soft tissue injuries.

Pain Management

Work accidents often result in a lot of pain so that Pain Management will be part of your recovery process. This could include injections to reduce inflammation and manage pain, TENS nerve stimulation, Physical Therapy, and Chiropractic Care. Your doctor will create a customized pain management plan based on your injuries and symptoms.

Immobilization

Your doctor might need to immobilize your injury. For example, if you sprain your ankle at work, your doctor will fit you with a knee brace to immobilize the tendons and ligaments. This will prevent you from injuring your ankle again before it heals. Immobilization is also required for fractures and other injuries.

Physical Therapy

Physical Therapy isn’t just used for pain management. It can also increase your strength and flexibility and make it easier for you to return to work. Your physical therapist will provide work conditioning to help you perform your tasks when you go back to work. The goal is to help you perform your duties without experiencing any pain.

Determine Work Restrictions

If you suffer an accident at work, you might not be able to perform your normal duties for quite some time. Your doctor will assess your abilities and indicate the restrictions that are needed when you go back to work. You will go back for regular evaluations, so your doctor can see if the restrictions need to be modified or removed.

Documentation

Your Workers’ Comp Doctor also plays an important role in documenting your claim. Proper documentation reduces disputes with your employer’s insurance company. This documentation can also be used if there is a workers’ compensation hearing. Some doctors do not want to be involved in a workers’ compensation cases or testify in court on your behalf, so be sure to choose a practice that is comfortable with these claims and ready to help you.

Find The Best Workers’ Comp Doctor Near You Today

Work accidents aren’t just painful. They are stressful, too. You are worried about getting back to living your life as soon as possible, and our doctors can help.

Depending on the severity of your injury, you might return to work with some restrictions. If that is necessary, your doctor will provide your employer and the insurance company with the proper documentation. Don’t delay, call us today (888) 734-8120 to make your appointment.

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