Getting injured on the job is a real pain–in more ways than one! First and foremost is the physical discomfort you’re in as the result of being injured at work. Then there is the missed time on the job as well as the workers’ compensation claims, which go hand in hand. Between the pain, treatment, and the dealings with lawyers, employers, healthcare personnel, it’s enough to give you a headache on top of the pain from your injury!

The good news is physical therapy can help with your workers’ comp injuries. Physical Therapy Now here in Irving has seen just about every kind of workers’ comp claim, and we know how to handle everything–from your physical therapy treatment to all of the documentation that goes along with these claims.

The Most Common Workers’ Comp Injury Claims

While just about any type of injury can be sustained in the workplace, a 2018 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report from the U.S. Department of Labor ranked these as the most common workplace injuries (incidents per 10,000 full-time workers):

• Sprains, strains, tears – 30.7
• Soreness or pain – 15.9
• Cuts, lacerations, punctures – 9.2
• Bruises, contusions – 7.9
• Fractures – 7.9

One of the most common injuries suffered in the workplace is lower back pain, which could fall under either of those top two categories–soreness/pain or pain resulting from a back strain or herniated disc, for example. Interestingly enough, there’s some positive news related to lower back pain injuries at work and workers’ comp claims.

Physical Therapy Can Help You Get Back to Work Sooner

According to a study conducted by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute, not only are more and more injured workers receiving timely physical therapy for their injuries, that PT is resulting in earlier returns to work–particularly for employees with lower-back pain injuries. The study, based on nearly 26,000 lower-back pain (LBP) claims with more than seven days of lost work time from 27 states (including Texas), showed that starting “physical therapy within the first two weeks post-injury is associated with lower medical utilization and costs and shorter duration of temporary disability.”

Of those 26,000 LBP-only claims, 68% received physical therapy treatment, and nearly half had seven or more PT visits. The difference in medical costs and treatment duration between those who started the physical therapy treatment within seven days and those who waited at least two weeks to begin PT is quite vast. The study states that workers who started physical therapy late were more likely to receive medical services after 30 days. Also, comparing the early PT recipients with the late recipients, the late group was 89% more likely to require lower-back surgery (though the overall risk for surgery still remained low for both groups).

Of course, physical therapy for workers’ comp claims extends far beyond just lower-back injuries and pain. As you saw earlier in this blog, several types of injuries occur on the job. Fortunately, physical therapy can help with most all of them.

We Know How to Handle Workers’ Comp Claims

Not only is it important for a physical therapist to get you feeling your best and back to work quickly, but a practice also needs to know the complicated ins and outs of workers’ compensation claims. Fortunately, Physical Therapy Now has plenty of experience handling these claims, so we give each case the attention it deserves.

During treatment, we make it a priority to keep organized records and documentation of all your treatment with us to help make the claims process smoother for you and your employer. That’s in addition to providing you with the best physical therapy in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, of course!

Irving, Texas Workers’ Comp Claims Therapy

No matter what type of injury you sustain in the workplace, Physical Therapy Now in Irving is here to provide you with high-quality PT. Our highly skilled and experienced physical therapists will work with you to create the perfect treatment plan for your injury, using anything from the traditional stretch, exercise, and massage therapy to the latest innovations in our state-of-the-art facility. Whichever course of treatment you receive, it’s all designed to help you reach one goal–feeling better so you can get back to work faster.

Additionally, to make sure you’re 100% ready for work, we can create a work-hardening program, which mimics your work environment and the physical tasks you perform every day to ensure you’re doing them correctly so you don’t reinjure yourself on the job.

Call us today at (800) 481-4582 to set up your first appointment, where we’ll discuss your injury and walk you through the workers’ compensation claim process. Then it’s time to get to work…so you can go back to work!