Worker’s compensation entails a lot of moving parts, including your health and finances. Therefore, you can expect to discuss a variety of worker’s comp topics with WorkPartners occupational health specialists who are experts in occupational medicine in Grand Junction, CO.
How Long You’ll Be Off Work
One of the major topics you’ll discuss when you visit is how long you can expect to be off work. This depends on the extent of your injury and the doctor’s recommended treatment plan. Many injuries require resting the injured body part for a few days, weeks, or even months. As such, if your job requires the use of the injured body part, you may have to refrain from working for the recommended time period.
WorkPartners occupational health specialists’ main goal is to get you back to functioning how you did before your injury, including returning you to work. While an occupational health specialist can give you a figure as to how long you’ll be off at the beginning, it’s merely a figure and may change as you progress. The staff will focus on getting you to recover as quickly as safely possible.
Components of Treatment
Another topic that your worker’s compensation specialist will discuss with you at your first appointment is your treatment plan.
Two important parts of your recovery will be rest and occupational therapy. In many cases, resting the injured body part is critical for a full recovery. While you may be off of work and other activities, your occupational health specialist will help train your injured body part to make the movements necessary for home and work life. This will also include learning how to accommodate movement restrictions while ensuring you are able to make necessary movements to get tasks done. All of this is accomplished with medications, rest, physical therapy, chiropractic services, and much more.
All in all, this particular aspect of worker’s compensation will involve you working with a therapist to regain the ability to perform the tasks necessary for daily life and your area of employment.
Pain Relief
Pain relief is a common issue that arises after injury. After you sustain a work-related injury, your practitioner will continuously monitor your pain and determine the appropriate course of action to reduce your suffering. Most of the time, this involves prescribing medications, treatments, and therapies. In some cases, it can require making changes to your occupational therapy plan.
What You Can Do When You Return to Work
The goal of occupational therapy is to get you back to work and a functioning level as much as possible. However, this takes time. You will have to rest and perform occupational therapy exercises and treatments, gradually increasing them over time. Therefore, you may be asked to transition your return to work and other duties slowly. This means you will have some restrictions but will be able to perform some work and home duties. Your practitioner is the only one who can make this decision.
You also have to keep in mind when you return to work, even on light duty, that your benefits may change. All of this should be discussed with your practitioner.
Information About Legal Issues
Part of worker’s compensation entails the legal aspect. This includes your employer’s coverage of your medical expenses and time off based on the injury that took place.
While a medical office doesn’t deal with the legal aspect of worker’s compensation, our practitioners work with case managers and employers to ensure the correct paperwork and information is shared among all parties involved regarding the injury, treatment plan, and progress.
Choose Our Grand Junction, CO Worker’s Compensation Practitioners for Your Work-Related Health Problems
We have a team that focuses on various topics related to worker’s compensation. Our goal is to help you recover and get you back to living your life while also reducing the stress of the financial aspect of worker’s compensation.
Contact WorkPartners Occupational Health, serving Grand Junction and the nearby Colorado region, if you were recently injured on the job. You may reach us by calling (970) 241-5585 or using our online appointment booking tool.
