Tag Archive for injury attorney seattle

Jennifer Atkinson | January 19, 2012
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L&I Adopts Hazardous Drugs Rule

On January 3, the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) adopted the Hazardous Drugs rule, which aims to protect health care workers from harmful exposure to chemotherapy or other hazardous drugs. The rule will go into effect in stages, beginning January 1, 2013.

The rule was enacted in response to a bill passed by the Washington State Legislature, which requires L&I to implement protections that abide by recommendations in the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health reports of 2004 and 2010.

L&I will host a public meeting to discuss the creation of a Hazardous Drugs Advisory Committee, as well as model programs that support employers as they implement the rule.  This event will take place at the L&I Tumwater building from 2 – 4 pm on Wednesday, January 25th. The Auditorium is located at:

Department of Labor & Industries Auditorium
7273 Linderson Way SW
Tumwater, WA 98501-5414

When the Hazardous Drugs rule goes into effect it will cover all health care settings where workers come into contact with these hazardous drugs. Some of those substances have been identified as cancer-causing agents, while others are known to cause irreversible harm to health care workers – even at low-level exposure rates.

Under this new rule, “health care facilities” will be defined as sites where a health care provider administers medical care to patients.

The rule includes minimum requirements for advancing a hazardous drug control program.  Using existing hazard assessments, employers will establish programs to reduce or eliminate employee exposure to hazardous substances.

If you or someone you know has suffered a work-related illness due to exposure to hazardous substances, contact an Employment Attorney at Emery Reddy for help recovering damages.

Category: Department of Labor and Industries, Employment Attorney, L&I, Labor and Industries, Occupational Illness, Workers Compensation Attorney, Workplace Safety | Tags: , , , , , ,
Jennifer Atkinson | January 11, 2012
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L&I Launches “Stay at Work” Program

Employers who give injured workers the opportunity to stay at light-duty jobs during their recovery may be eligible for reimbursement through the Department of Labor & Industries.  This incentive has emerged out of a new program in Washington State designed to keep injured workers in their jobs, while supporting employers who make this possible.

Washington’s new Stay at Work program is open to employers who pay workers’ compensation premiums to L&I. The program partially reimburses those businesses for the cost of returning employees with a work injury to light-duty jobs before they have medical clearance to return to their primary positions.

While the program was just launched yesterday, the legislation that produced it went into effect in June of 2011.  L&I claim managers anticipate that thousands of reimbursement requests from businesses who’ve already been offering light-duty jobs to employees with work-related injury during the period since the legislation passed.

The new program is one of a number of historic workers’ compensation reforms to come out of the 2011 Washington legislative session. These reforms are intended to lower costs and improve the recovery rates for workers with on-the-job injuries.

“The Stay at Work program gives us a unique opportunity to give Washington businesses an active role in their injured workers’ recoveries and return to productive employment,” said L&I Assistant Director for Insurance Services, Beth Dupre. “Most important, we have a much better chance of helping injured workers stay on salary and in the game while they recover under their doctor’s care.”

Employers participating in the Stay at Work program help injured workers by creating light-duty or “transitional” jobs that adhere to physician’s recommendations and medical restrictions. Some workers will need to undergo an Independent Medical Examination as part of this process. During the prescribed recovery time, the injured worker earns wages from the employer rather than receiving time-loss compensation from L&I.  For example, a worker with a construction site injury might take an inventory job while recovering from a back injury. Then through the Stay at Work program, L&I reimburses the employer for half of the worker’s base wage, plus some additional expenses (not to exceed $10,000 per L&I claim).

The program has already proved effective in Oregon, showing a tendency to speed recovery time and reduce long-term disability for a given workers compensation injury.  Medical studies indicate that many workers recovering from an injury are less likely to suffer from long-term disability when they remain active and engaged.

“This is a win-win for our employers,” Dupre said.  “It’s a strategy that will help their businesses and workers, and it won’t negatively impact their premium costs.”

If you need help with your L&I injury claim, contact a Seattle L&I Attorney.

 

Category: Department of Labor and Industries, Employment Attorney, Independent Medical Examination, L&I, Labor and Industries, Worker Injury, workers compensation, workers with disabilities, Workplace Accident | Tags: , , , , ,
Jennifer Atkinson | December 13, 2011
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Study Shows Improved Recovery from Work Related Injuries

According to this month’s issue of the American Public Health Association journal, Medical Care, studies of occupational healthcare in Washington indicate that improving medical care for injured workers significantly decreases missed work time. The study was conducted by Dr Thomas Wickizer of Ohio State University, College of Public Health, and Dr. Gary Franklin, medical director at Washington State’s Department of Labor & Industries (L&I).

“Work-related disability is a major public health problem that’s largely overlooked in the U.S.,” Dr. Franklin of L&I said. “This study shows that using occupational health best practices when treating injured workers can have an important effect on their recovery.”

In 2008, L&I began to collaborate with physicians in both Washington and throughout the U.S., University of Washington medical researchers, and business leaders and labor advocates to assess best practices for helping workers recover during the first 12 weeks following a work-related injury. L&I’s Centers of Occupational Health and Education (COHE) were the direct outcome of this project; these organizations function as community-based centers that promote the most effective procedures and treatments of injured workers.

Specifically, these practices emphasize the safe, healthful recovering of injured workers and their return to full capacity and employment in the workplace. Such “best practices” include quickly filing a workers’ compensation claim with L&I, directly contacting the employer to discuss the worker’s ability to resume their job (or some lighter tasks in the workplace), and frequently evaluating a worker’s ability to perform tasks and activities at work.

L&I provides monetary incentives and administrative support to COHE healthcare providers to help them put injured workers back to work as soon as possible. Health services coordinators are central to the success of this process: these individuals work with COHEs and report to healthcare delivery teams, supporting community-wide integration of medical care.

This undertaking, and the enhanced integration of care by way of best practices and incentives, has emerged as an early prototype of what many imagine could be a more “accountable-care” concept within national health care reform.

The study involved seven workers compensation researchers from L&I, the Ohio State University’s College of Public Health, and the University of Washington’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. Together, this team examined and evaluated 105,000 + workers’ compensation claims from 2001 to 2007, including both COHE and non-COHE-related claims.  Findings show that injured workers who received treatment from healthcare providers following COHE best practices had 20% fewer “disability days” compared to other injured workers receiving treatment, as well as a $510 drop in total medical and disability costs per claim. One of the most promising figures related to back strain: workers with back injuries showed a 30% drop in disability days. In his report, Dr. Franklin stated: “We’re especially encouraged that the outcomes for workers with low-back strain were significantly better. Lower-back strain is a costly and common disabling condition in workers’ compensation.”

At the moment, four COHE sites work with 2,000 providers and hundreds of workplaces, providing treatment to nearly one-third of injured workers in Washington. Figures from the study brought about new legislation this year that will make COHEs more accessible, expanding access to all injured workers in Washington by 2015.

Category: Back Injury, Department of Labor and Industries, L&I, workers compensation, Workplace Accident | Tags: , , , , ,
Jennifer Atkinson | July 16, 2011
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OSHA EXAMINES WORKER RISK OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration of Washington State (OSHA) will be meeting in late July to begin talks on the risks of infectious disease exposure in the workplace. Using research, feedback and other information from these meetings, OSHA will assess the possibility of developing new workplace regulations aimed at protecting employees from infectious agents.  Worker risk is especially high in healthcare professions where workers administer direct care to patients; however, OSHA talks will cover all workplace environments in which workers may be exposed to infection.  The meetings will take place in late July and early August in Washington, D.C.

Earlier this year OSHA published a “Request for Information on Infectious Diseases.” The agency was looking to compile various strategies and practices that have been effective in reducing workers’ risk of occupational exposure to infectious agents. Moreover, officials at OSHA wanted to establish accurate distinctions between the nature and extent of various work-related infectious diseases. Using feedback from healthcare professionals and the larger business community, as well as internal research on the issue, the agency is now debating whether to create a program standard aimed as reducing infectious agents in the workplace.

Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, released a statement claiming “We know that workers in healthcare and related facilities may be exposed to infectious agents, and they deserve to be protected. Information gained from these meetings will help us determine the best approach to assure that workers don’t put themselves at risk while caring for patients and doing their job. After all, a good job is a healthy and safe job.”

On the agenda for the upcoming meetings in Washington, DC is a discussion of the relative merits and disadvantages of implementing a program standard to control occupational exposure to infectious agents; whether (and to what extent) employers should be required to provide an OSHA-approved infection control plan that would outline the implementation of infection control measures for protecting workers; and finally, the possibility of alternative approaches to OSHA rulemaking intended to enhance compliance with existing infection control guidelines under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Health, and other public health agencies.

Under the 1970 U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers are required to provide employees with a safe and healthy workplace. In its capacity as the act’s regulatory agency, OSHA creates and enforces standards and provides training and assistance to workers to ensure the safety of working conditions across the U.S.

 

If you believe you are suffering from a work-related illness or injury, a Washington Workers Compensation Lawyer can help investigate and support your claim.

Category: Occupational Illness, workers compensation | Tags: , ,
Jennifer Atkinson | June 2, 2011
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Labor & Industries Taps Drivers and Employers in Push for Workers’ Comp

A stalled Bill intended to give workers’ compensation benefits to Washington State taxi and limousine drivers may receive new life.  The Department of Labor and Industries was tapped early this week to contact employers and drivers in an effort to move the Bill forward.

The recent forced closure of a North Carolina bus company with an extensive history of safety violations has brought greater scrutiny to how professional drivers are treated by the agencies that employ them.  Although the driver involved in the latest deadly accident was cited for reckless driving, there is some evidence that Sky Express, the company that employed the driver, had a history forcing possibly fatigued drivers to work multiple shifts with inadequate rest.

What this incident highlights is that bus, taxi, and limousine drivers as well as other “for-hire” vehicle drivers are not merely unskilled workers, but professionals who literally hold the lives of their passengers in their hands, and that their ability to do so is directly linked to the kinds of workplace protections they may receive.  As such, there have been recent pushes by Labor advocates and Labor & Industries experts to expand access to health care and workers’ compensation benefits for these workers.

In February, Seattlepi.com reported that a Senate Bill requiring drivers to be covered by workers’ compensation benefits stalled in the legislature.  Scott Gutierrez reports, “Senate Bill 5785, one of two bills on the topic, would define taxis, limousines and other for-hire vehicles as ‘urban transportation businesses’ and require their owners to pay industrial insurance premiums.  The goal is to ensure that drivers are covered for work-related injuries beyond what’s covered by auto insurance, which is mandatory in the taxi business.”

The Bill’s sponsor, Senator Adam Kline, D-Seattle, is quoted as arguing “They get robbed and beat up, and because they spend so much time on the road, they’re exposed to more collisions.  That’s an occupational hazard.”

There has also been confusion over who is liable when a taxi or town car driver is injured in the workplace.  Gutierrez notes, “In the past, health care providers mistakenly filed medical claims with L&I involving cab drivers who said they were injured on the job, even though no one was paying into the system for them.  Then, L&I had to sort out whether the driver was an employee and who was responsible for the premiums.”  In fact, there was even a “recent lawsuit in Tacoma between L&I and a taxi association over a $400,000 medical claim involving a driver who was shot during a robbery.”

The Tacoma driver is only one of many Washington State drivers who have been the victim of violence in recent years.  Drivers are put in very vulnerable positions in relation to their passengers and often have little recourse when they are attacked, robbed, or even killed.  These statistics reveal that creating access to benefits could increase safety for passengers and drivers alike

The Department of Labor and Industries is well aware of these dangers and now seems prepared to help the legislature close this important gap in coverage for this very vulnerable class of workers.  The Preproposal Statement of Inquiry filed by L&I this week will seek advice from both employers and individuals from the for-hire vehicle industry as they move this initiative forward.

Workers injured on the job should first seek medical help, but then consult with an expert Washington workers compensation lawyer about their claim.  The expert workers’ compensation attorneys at Emery Reddy are standing by to assist injured workers with their claims.

Category: Uncategorized, Worker Injury, Worker Rights, workers compensation, Workplace Accident | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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