Everyone deserves to be safe at work, but despite efforts to ensure this across the country, accidents still happen quite frequently. These accidents can range in severity, and can sometimes be extremely debilitating.
If you’ve experienced an accident at work, it’s important to take the proper steps to ensure your safety in the short and long term. Following the proper procedures can ensure you are well taken care of following this kind of injury.
What do you need to know about injuries at work? Read on and we’ll walk you through the basics.
What To Do After an Accident
Let’s just hop right into it: something terrible has happened, accidentally, and you’ve been injured as a result. What do you need to do?
First and foremost, you need to care for yourself and your injury. Seek medical attention right away, even if you think that you might be okay. Adrenaline immediately following an accident tends to mask pain, which can make it easy to feel like you’re fine even when you are not.
Seeking medical attention soon after an injury will give you a better sense of your actual well-being.
Reporting Accidents at Work
Once you’ve taken care of your own situation, you’ll need to report the accident to your employers. You should ensure that they are aware of the incident and exactly how it occurred.
If a medical professional has decided that you are injured in some way, you’ll need to fill out workers’ compensation paperwork and an accident report. All employers of a certain size are required to have this kind of insurance in place.
Under no circumstance should you be convinced not to fill out this kind of paperwork. If you feel as if your employer is preventing you from getting the compensation that you have a right to, you should talk to someone about protecting your rights.
Keep a Record of All Expenses
It will take some time for your claim to go through. In the meantime, you’ll need to take as much care as possible to keep a record of your expenses. Anything you pay for or have to manage as a result of your injury should be written down and stored safely.
This should include other losses. If you can’t work because of your injury, you should note the lost wages. If you aren’t able to take a holiday that you had planned, you should note the money you’ve lost on the arrangements.
Anything like these expenses should all be noted. If you are working with an attorney to ensure you get the payment that you need, you should provide them with this information as well.
Dealing With an Accident at Work
An accident at work can be a huge interruption to your life and can be a huge problem to have to deal with. Following the proper procedure after such an incident can make the future a little bit easier to work with.
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