Treating an Injured Worker: Injured workers should keep a journal
Today's is the third installment of my series of tips for healthcare professionals who are treating injured or disabled workers.
Knowing more about how workers' compensation laws are structured in North Carolina will help healthcare professionals attend to the other needs of injured workers during the course of medical treatment.
You can find other entries in this series here:
Here's today's tip:
- Encourage you patient to keep a calendar or journal to document important facts relating to the work injury and ongoing treatment. In their journals, patients should record details of how the injury occurred, who witnessed it and how and when it was reported. Additionally, injured workers should make note of any medical appointments in their journals, recording any medical procedures that were conducted and instructions they received from healthcare workers. Finally, patients should write about any symptoms or additional medical problems they’re experiencing and any harassment they encounter from employers, coworkers or the insurance company regarding the work injury. Workers’ personal journals have proven to be invaluable in presenting a workers’ comp claim to the N.C. Industrial Commission.