What Steps Should You Take If Your Employee Gets Injured at Work?

Workplace injuries are not uncommon. Having a safety management plan and protocol can help you address injuries and accidents as soon as possible. Businesses that delay addressing workplace injuries, as well as notifying authorities in time, can experience claims proceedings that extend for months.

When this happens, you could end up paying more in legal fees and settlement costs. To prevent this from happening, you should have safety protocols that address potential workplace injuries.

What should you include in your safety management program?

All businesses should consider creating a safety management program. This program is aimed at

• Creating protocols and procedures on how to handle emergencies and accidents. A 24-hour plan should be created as well. This plan informs employees and management on the steps they should take immediately following an incident.
• Training employees on safety procedures and first aid. Employees should be aware of the steps they are expected to take to prevent and handle workplace injuries. That way, when an injury happens, they’ll know how to act immediately. Getting certified can be done online or by completing a certification course in First Aid Training in Newmarket.

Safety management and training programs can help you handle workplace injuries and provide prompt assistance to the injured. Often, prompt assistance can prevent a situation from aggravating. Your injured employee will also know that they’re in safe hands and can rely on you and their colleagues for assistance.

Having a safety manual available for all employees, as well as providing regular training on safety procedures, can help your employees learn how to handle workplace injuries.

What should you do if an employee gets injured?

Even if you have the best safety management protocols in place, an accident can still happen. An employee can trip and fall down the stairs, can faint, slip and fall, etc. In these situations, prompt response and effective handling of the situation can bring about the best-case scenario.

The best-case scenario here involves a smooth insurance claims process and your employee returning to work as soon as they can.

For the insurance claims process, you’ll need to have a Workers Compensation Insurance Policy in place. Since Workers Comp is compulsory for business owners in many states, your business may already have this insurance policy.

Workers Compensation Insurance Policy provides financial protection for your employee should they suffer from a workplace injury. It provides medical claims, death, and disability benefits and also helps them recover at least part of the wages they missed out on from not being able to work.

Here are the steps you should take when your employee is injured at work:

1. Assess the situation

Providing immediate assistance to the injured employee should be your prerogative. Check for bruises and wounds, ask them where they feel pain, and ensure that they haven’t hit their head. After assessing their condition, you should decide whether emergency medical services should be called or not.

Not every workplace injury will require medical support, but if necessary, your employees should know who to call and what information to deliver to them. Until emergency services arrive, someone should be with your employee and monitor their condition.

2. Document everything

When it comes to insurance plans for workplace injuries, documentation is everything. You should consider not delaying filling out the paperwork any time an injury occurs. Even if an employee suffers from a minor incident and doesn’t need medical support or hospitalization, document the situation nonetheless.

This way, you’ll be able to jot down details that you may otherwise forget later on. If a minor injury turns out to be something bigger, your documentation will help you there as well.

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In case your employee needs to go to a hospital, give them paperwork for the doctor to fill out. This paperwork will help the insurance claims process. The doctor should provide information on the employee’s condition when they can return to work, as well as any risks they may face from their injuries.

3. Notify relevant authorities

All workplace injuries should be reported to your Workers Comp insurance carrier. Consider reporting minor injuries as well. However, under certain circumstances, you’ll need to notify OSHA as well. These circumstances include

• If an employee dies as a result of their workplace injury within thirty days of the incident. From the time of their death, inform OSHA within eight hours.
• If an employee has to be hospitalized, have limbs amputated, or lose vision or their eyes, inform OSHA. In this situation, the employee should require hospitalization within twenty-four hours of the injury. You have twenty-four hours since the time of their hospitalization to inform OSHA.

4. Stay in touch with the doctor

Keeping a track of the condition of your employee from the doctor, you can stay updated on their recovery progress. This also shows that you care about your employee and their return to work. You can also consider visiting your employee as well.

5. Workers Compensation Insurance

If your employee is unable to work due to their injuries, they can file for a Workers Cover claim. When this happens, your insurance carrier will cover the legal costs of the proceedings and help your employee with financial help as well.

Please note that you can’t fire your employee if they can’t return to work following their workplace injury. The doctor will be able to tell you when they can return to work.

Conclusion

Workplace injuries can prevent your employees from working and result in claims for medical needs, wages, etc. This is normal, and Workers Cover will take care of the expenses for you. In addition to Workers Comp, there are various other business insurance policies that can protect your business as well as your employees. If you want to know about more insurance policies for businesses, then click here.