Workers’ Comp Physical Therapy 101
Workers’ Comp Physical Therapy 101
So, You’ve Been Injured at Work…
Dealing with injury and illness is never fun and physical therapists are the healthcare providers sought out most to help recover from an injury or the effects of a serious illness. Physical therapists often encounter work-related injury and illness. While the approach to treating these conditions may be the same as or similar to any other injury or illness, it falls under a specific category known as workers’ compensation.
Did you know that if your injury or illness occurred as a direct result of your employment you are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits that can cover the cost of physical therapy treatment? That’s right, if you are experiencing pain, weakness, loss of endurance, poor balance, muscle stiffness or difficulty performing work-related and daily tasks due to work-related injury or illness, physical therapy is a great way to help you to address these symptoms. Let’s take a deeper look at work-related injuries and illnesses, workers’ compensation benefits and how physical therapy can help you.
WORKERS’ COMPENSATION 101
In the state of New York, the Workers’ Compensation Board defines workers’ compensation as “insurance that provides cash benefits and/or medical care for workers who are injured or become ill as a direct result of their job.” Because of the role of physical therapy in treating injuries and illnesses affecting multiple body systems, physical therapy may be recommended to treat work-related injuries which are covered under workers’ compensation benefits.
With few exceptions, the amount that the claimant receives is not increased or decreased based on whether the employee or employer are “at fault”. If the employer or workers’ comp insurance agree that the injury or illness is a direct result of the person’s job then benefits will be paid out to cover the cost of necessary medical care. If there is a disagreement as to the cause of the claim, a judge specializing in workers’ compensation law will make a judgment.
WORK-RELATED INJURY AND ILLNESS BY THE NUMBERS
Since the 1980s, work-related illness and injury rates have been trending downward in the private sector thanks to safer practices, greater oversight and education, but the impact of each illness and injury can still be great. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2020 private employers reported 2.7 million work-related injuries and illnesses which means that the lives of many workers are still being negatively affected by injury.
The National Safety Council maintains records on workplace injuries including how often they occur, what the incidence of injury is amongst different industries and what is causing the injuries and illnesses. Slips, trips and falls, transportation incidents, being struck by an object, caught in equipment and overexertion are some of the categories tracked by the council.
According to the National Safety Council, for the first time, in 2020 the “body systems” category was the body part most affected by injury and illness. This was in large part due to the COVID-19 pandemic because viral illness falls under the body systems category. On average, workers missed 13 days of work after an incident affecting “body systems” which pulled the overall median number of days missed from work due to work-related injury or illness from 8 days (in 2019) to 12 days in (2020). An injury to the shoulder resulted in a median number of 28 days of missed work, while a foot injury resulted in 13 days of missed work and a back injury, 9 days.
Since you may not have had to sit through multiple statistics courses in college like we did to earn our physical therapy degrees, let us discuss what the term “median” means when it comes to missed days of work. If we know the lowest and highest number of days missed by any worker due to an injury or illness, the median number is the value in the middle of the distribution. This means there is an equal chance of missing more and less days of work than the median value. So while missing 9 days of work for a back injury may not seem like a ton to some, by definition we know that there are many people who are missing more, in some cases many more days than that due to their injuries.
So why is this important? Work-related injuries, if not properly addressed, can impact a worker’s ability to perform their job duties temporarily and sometimes permanently. This can have large personal, social and financial impacts over time. Physical therapy, however, can help to treat the injury to ensure full recovery before returning to work, address underlying risk factors that may predispose a worker to re-injury and educate them on proper performance of work-related duties to reduce the risk of future injury.
WHAT TYPES OF WORK-RELATED INJURIES DO PHYSICAL THERAPISTS TREAT?
Physical therapists can help address many different types of work-related injuries. Below you will find some of the most common types of work-related injuries that workers’ comp physical therapy treats:
Musculoskeletal injuries: if you are experiencing injury, pain, or dysfunction in the muscles or bones, musculoskeletal physical therapy can help you heal and restore healthy movement. Examples of musculoskeletal injuries include:
Other joint pain or injury (knee, ankle, foot, hip, shoulder, elbow, wrist, hand)
Fracture recovery
Muscle contusions
Muscle stiffness and tightness
Neurologic injuries: neurologic injuries or disorders resulting directly from the workplace such as concussions, traumatic brain injuries, strokes, spinal cord injuries or peripheral nerve injuries may require physical therapy to help recover from the injury and restore function.
Cardiac and pulmonary rehab: if injury to the heart and lungs occurred as a result of a workplace injury or as a complication of a workplace injury then you might work with a physical therapist trained in cardiac or pulmonary rehabilitation to improve the function of the heart and lungs.
WE TAKE AN INDIVIDUALIZED APPROACH TO YOUR CARE
At Evolve Physical Therapy we will always take an individualized approach to your care. Our team of physical therapists may prescribe manual therapy techniques, postural re-education, strength and flexibility training, gait and balance training and industry specific education to help improve your symptoms and get you back to work. Rather than trying to tolerate your symptoms and hope for the best, schedule a workers’ comp evaluation at our clinic today and allow us to support you in your long term recovery.
Click here for more information about our physical therapy services for workers compensation claims
About EvolveNY-
Brooklyn's Premier Holistic Physical Therapy Clinics- There’s physical therapy, there’s training, and then there’s EVOLVE. We use the science of biomechanics merged with fitness to help our patients get better and stay better!
First we evaluate, then we heal, then we strengthen our clients so they can reach their goals, feel better, and live happier lives. We do so by utilizing a range of core techniques and specialized treatments to reduce pain, improve mobility, enhance physical strength and deal with the underlying issues, not just the pain itself.
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