Worker's Compensation

Workers’ compensation injuries: Effective care & treatment.

The changing face of work-injury treatments.

A work injury can impact your patient’s ability to earn a living as well as their home life and other activities. Workplace injuries cost business hundreds of millions yearly in lost hours and productivity, Workers’ Compensation and healthcare costs, replacement costs and legal costs.

To reduce these liabilities, injured workers should begin treatment as soon as possible with cost-effective, state-of-the-art pain intervention, physical therapy and a team of medical professionals who are motivated to help.

The major difference in the treatment of workplace injuries today, especially when compared to the practices of just ten years ago, is a more aggressive approach to patient motivation and treatment and the decreased amount of time an injury (and patient!) needs to be immobilized. In past practice, the patient was simply sent home for an extended period of bed rest. Today, treatment should begin immediately after a workplace injury, preferably the same day or within 24 hours. Treatment is initiated as soon as possible into a stretching and muscle-strengthening program, eventually moving into a work conditioning/hardening program using progressively more resistance while protecting the injured area for more rapid healing.

Exercise is also extremely important to rehabilitation. The old practice of immobilization led, more often than not, to joint stiffness and muscle atrophy. Instead of placing a sprained ankle in a cast for two to three weeks, we recommend immediate pain intervention and reduced weight-bearing exercise to begin almost immediately. Exercise allows a patient to return to work more quickly than passive therapy such as applied heat or massage. With a back injury, passive therapy would often keep the patient from work and activity for several months.

Shorter recuperation time has the added benefit of reducing medical and insurance costs for the employer. By returning the patient to work faster, we can also reduce the paperwork and production losses associated with hiring and training part-time replacements while an employee is out of work.

There are more workplace injuries caused by repetitive motions today than ever before. Thanks to the widespread use of personal computers in business offices and manufacturing facilities and the heightened pressures to increase the speed of production, repetitive-stress injuries will continue to rise. With the use of repeated motion in the wrists, for example, there is an increased risk for developing carpal tunnel syndrome. Secretaries and other office workers are now afflicted in greater numbers, often because they type faster for longer hours. Many of these individuals are advised to vary their tasks during the day to help prevent repetitive-stress injuries. Workers’ Compensation statistics report that moderate to lightweight work, not heavy work, causes most workplace injuries due to repetitive stresses over time.

We deal with all kinds of work-related injuries. We work closely with case managers, employers and insurance adjustors to streamline the process to speed patient recovery and get patients back to work sooner. We approach each case according to the individual’s working health needs, then determine the most efficient, cost-effective course of treatment.

To learn more about our Worker's Compensation services, please call Deccan Pacific Medical Group at 510-284-4100 or use our online contact form to contact us today!