What If Transitional Duty Doesn’t Work, don’t exceed restrictions

Despite your best  efforts to get work ability forms from all treating physicians and evaluate your employee on a weekly basis, there are times when the medical provider says the injured employee can do more than s/he thinks s/he can.

For example,  a bus driver injured his right arm in a work-related accident. The doctor finds  the muscles and bones have mostly healed and  the patient should no longer be feeling pain and may return to work for four, rather than an eight hour day.

But in your  weekly reviews, the employee complains tha opening the bus door is still so painful he cannot drive home at the end of the day.

In this situation  write an email from the injury coordinator to the adjustor asking if a functional capacity evaluation (FCE) may be needed. Also, consider options for alternate work for a while longer.

In the email cover these points.

1. Be sure  to include claim number and all relevant addresses and contact information on the letter.
2. Include  the supervisor in any discussions.
3. Clearly explain the situation: who is injured, what the injury is, what the current complaint is and what the physician says the worker should be able to do
4. Explain  the company’s medical advisor reviewed the reports and the employee’s complaints do not mesh with the current medical diagnosis.
5. Acknowledge  the pain could be imagined (but without judgment) or the result of the employee being fearful of additional injury. Be aware that the pain might be very real also, and don’t minimize the likelihood of this possibility. Anyone who has ever had repetitive arm injury knows how painful it can be and often even a small amount of use can trigger painful symptoms.
6. Ask your   adjustor if an (FCE) is needed and, depending on results, perhaps an off-site work hardening program is in order.  In work-hardening the employee is allowed to build up to his regular job capacity in a supervised setting, removing the fear of reinjury.
7. Ask the adjustor  for suggestions of work-hardening centers in the area.
8. Acknowledge the  difficulty of this claim and  the adjustor for the timely response. (workersxzcompxzkit)

Real or imagined,  pain while doing one’s job benefits neither the company nor the employee. There are programs  designed to help your employee work through these issues.

Vigilant attention  to the employee will ease this process.

Author:  Robert Elliott, J.D.

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