INJURED WORKERS - THE IMPORTANCE OF A FULL DIAGNOSIS

Many people get injured on the job in Texas every year. Unfortunately, in some of these cases, there is a failure to document ALL injuries a patient sustained on the job.

When a worker gets injured on the job, they have a duty to fill out what is called a FORM 41 (DWC41), or initial report of injury.

This form gives the injured worker the ability to list all body parts injured, give the date of injury, etc. It is to be filled out within one year of the date of injury, and must be mailed to the Texas Department of Insurance in Austin Texas.

THE NEED FOR A FULL AND PROPER DIAGNOSIS

Often, when a worker gets injured on the job, most of the attention is paid to either the injury that hurts most at the time, and/or the most "obvious" injury. By obvious, I mean things like deep, bleeding cuts, broken bones, contusions, amputations, eye injuries, etc.

Sometimes, what hurts worst, and gets diagnosed as "the compensable injury" is not the ONLY injury sustained on the job, and in fact, often, is not even the most serious injury.

Usually, the initial treating doctor is responsible for establishing the diagnosis, and it becomes the de facto diagnosis. For example, often workers get sent to either a "company doctor" who actually works for the company, or they are sent to a doctor that the company "prefers".

The evidence I have seen suggests to me that there is a tendency for doctors somehow associated with employers (either directly working for them or who are referred patients by the company) to come up with a limited number of diagnoses, and to have a tendency to come up with minimalist diagnoses, secondary to a very minimal or cursory examination, often without even doing x-ray imaging.

If you drop a weight on your foot, and at the same time jerk your low back, you can fracture some bones in your foot, and this can hurt a lot and generate a diagnosis of a tarsal fracture, but at the same time, you could have an intervertebral disc to displace, and you get stuck with the only compensable or covered area being that limited fracture of a bone in the foot, and the more serious disc displacement, being ignored completely. I say the intervertebral disc problem may be the more serious, because, depending on the extent and severity, it could conceivably result in the need for surgery to the spine down the line.

Sometimes, doctors miss diagnosing all the injuries sustained because of the following :

a. They do not take a complete enough history

b. They do not do all the indicated neurological and orthopaedic testing.

c. They do not think through the dynamics of the actions that resulted
in the injury to the patient, and consider the biomechanical links that can result in many sites of injury.

If you feel that the treating doctor you have has not documented all your injuries or have concerned that your treatment is not helping,
please feel free to call 903-753-5400 for a free consultation with Dr. Baker at Baker Chiropractic, PA.