TL;DR: Injured my back on the job and I’m experiencing a good amount of pain. Was examined by a company doctor and interviewed by a “Safety Team Member” at our company’s clinic. They recommend halving my prescription so they don’t have to write a report and instructed me to not see other doctors unless specified by them.
Question: Would I lose any claim for Workers Compensation if I see a different doctor? And, is it legal for a “Safety Team Member” to sit in on my examination and recommend a different prescription to avoid filing a report?
So I recently hurt my back pretty bad on the job (I work construction in the Tri-state area). I informed my boss right away and he told me to see how I feel in the morning — see if it gets worse.
Next morning rolls around, it got worse.
I crawled into work and me and my boss filled out an incident report. He then gets a phone call from our office telling me to go straight to the “company clinic” (it’s like a make shift doctors office right outside our main office). I get there and while waiting to see the doctor, a Safety Team Member (STM) asked me a few questions like… what happened, what I did after it happened…and what I like to do on the weekends and while I’m not at work?
It’s like the STM was baiting me for an alternative excuse to my injury?
The doctor eventually calls *us* back, has me sign a HIPAA consent form about not sharing my information, blah blah blah. Doctor examines me and goes over my symptoms / pain. Keep in mind, the STM has been in the room for all of this. Is that shit protocol?? Where’s the doctor-patient confidentiality?
After we go over everything, the doctor recommends a prescription for a high dosage of ibuprofen in addition to being put on light duty until I come back to see them in a couple days. STM then interrupts and asks to cut my prescription in half so it can be written up as a “non-incident”. Wtf? Seriously?
We wrap up and I head over to HR, never been there but I wanted them to know how fucking uncomfortable and unprofessional the entire experience was? I felt so disrespected and insulted that the STM asked to lower my prescription just so we didn’t have to write it up?! This injury could be life changing — I’m still young — you don’t fuck around with your back. HR brushed it off and noted the clinic is new and I was kind of the “guinea pig” being one of the first to go through this new process.
After all this, I get back to the Safety Office and I’m told they don’t have any light duty work so I’ll be going back to my job site — I just can’t pick up, push or pull anything over 20lbs… So I can basically do nothing?
I have no idea what I should do? Should I go to another doctor for a second opinion? I feel like I need X-rays?? I was told that I’m not supposed to go to any doctor other than the ones they say? Can they do that?
I just feel like everything was super shady and there was an overall lack in care for my wellbeing. Please help!
Edit: Tri-state = PA / DE / NJ
Written By: SatanIsACuck
Source: https://ift.tt/2OwtaFP
No comments:
Post a Comment