The first thing you should do is tell your supervisor about your accident as soon as you can. If you don’t tell your employer about the accident within 30 days after the accident occurs, your workers’ compensation claim can be barred for failing to give notice of the accident to your employer. You should tell your employer how your work accident happened, and what parts of your body you injured.
You should then seek medical care for your injuries. Sometimes the true nature of your injury doesn’t immediately reveal itself. Our workers’ compensation lawyers have seen too many cases where a client suffered from pain for months before going to a doctor, only to find they have a serious work injury requiring surgery. Often, these clients did not report their work injury because they didn’t think it was serious. In reality, every work injury is serious until a doctor tells you it isn’t. After you receive medical care, you should keep your employer up to date on your ability to return to work, even if the doctor tells you you can’t return to work yet.
Keep in mind that when you report your work accident to your employer, they should provide you with a panel of physicians. This “panel” should be a list of three doctors you can choose from to seek medical care for your work injury. If your employer does not provide you with a panel of physicians, you can go to a doctor of your choosing.
