Why You Need an Occupational Medicine Provider for Work Injuries

Haley Bass

Experiencing an employee injury is difficult enough – it’s scary, daunting, and holds a lot of unknowns. On top of that, you’re filing a workers’ compensation claim, managing the paperwork, coordinating with your insurance payor and medical provider, and dealing with the repercussions of an absent employee. The last thing you need is a drawn out, ineffective treatment plan that keeps your injured employee away from work longer than necessary.

Partnering with an occupational medicine provider can lighten your workload. With expertise in treating work-related injuries and an understanding of workers’ compensation, an experienced occupational medicine provider can help get your injured employees back to work quickly while simplifying the process for you.

When it comes to managing work-related injuries, it’s important to turn to the experts. Here are three things you gain from working with an occupational medicine provider.

A partner for the workers’ compensation process.

Trying to manage every aspect of the workers’ compensation process can be overwhelming. It’s a lot less painful when you have a partner to help facilitate the injured employee's treatment and return-to-work plan, while also driving the communication with key stakeholders. When your occupational medicine provider is also your partner, you can expect claims to move along efficiently with minimal hang-ups.

Partnering with your provider will help prepare you and your workforce for work-related injuries before they even occur, so that when they do, you have a process already in place to quickly get your employee on the road to recovery. An occupational medicine provider will help you manage the process, facilitating communication between the employer, injured employee, payor or third-party administrator (TPA), and other stakeholders to drive the case forward.

Experience and expertise in occupational medicine.

While a primary care or emergency department clinician should be able to treat your injured employees, they’re likely to prescribe a passive treatment plan that relies on medication and bed rest. This can keep your employee out of work longer, and potentially make the injury worse.

A clinician trained in occupational medicine can diagnose and treat work-related injuries and illnesses much more effectively. Clinicians with expertise in occupational medicine will familiarize themselves with the specific conditions of your workplace to create a practical, effective treatment plan that returns an injured employee to work quickly and safely.

Occupational medicine clinicians are trained to treat injured employees as industrial athletes – starting treatment promptly with an active recovery process. When clinicians meet with patients quickly, they can educate the patient on the benefits of returning to work, preventing potential psychological roadblocks to recovery. And the sooner the injured worker sees a doctor, the sooner they can begin treatment, and the sooner they’ll return to full function.

A single location for all your needs.

Convenience helps determine if patients complete their treatment plans, especially when they involve follow-up visits and physical therapy. With one single location close to the workplace for all their needs – from initial visit through recovery – patients are more likely to complete treatment and return to work quickly.

A “one-stop shop” for treatment isn’t only convenient, it can also result in better quality of care. When your treating physician, specialist, and physical therapist are all under one roof, you receive a continuum of care with little to no disruption in your treatment process. The elimination of traveling to and authorizing multiple providers helps save time and money, and makes the entire care process faster and more effective.

You need a partner in the work injury care process that understands how to treat work-related injuries while saving you time and money. That partner exists in Concentra®. With more than 520 centers across the country, there’s likely to be a convenient location near your workforce. Our clinicians are all trained in occupational medicine, and will work alongside you during the injury care process.

If you want a successful work injury care program, partner with Concentra. Talk to one of our work health experts to get started.