Vermont Healthcare Worker Injury Lawyer
On average, over 650,000 healthcare workers are injured on the job every year. These dedicated professionals work long hours with punishing physical, mental and emotional demands. Nurses and medical assistants in hospitals and nursing homes face innumerable occupational hazards, including accidental needle sticks,daily exposure to bodily fluids and pathogens, and heavy patient transfers and assists. Like any work injury, occupational hazards are compensable and shouldn’t just be accepted as part of the job. Don’t wait until an injury gets worse and costlier, but it’s too late to file a claim for workers’ compensation. Act quickly to protect your rights by promptly reporting any workplace accident, injury or exposure, and then seek medical attention. Contact our experienced Vermont healthcare worker injury lawyer for help with a workers’ comp claim that is being unreasonably delayed, denied, or underpaid, call Sluka Law for immediate assistance.
Common Job-Related Injuries Suffered by Healthcare Workers in Vermont
Sluka Law is proud to represent the dedicated and tireless healthcare workers staffing Vermont hospitals, clinics and nursing homes. We help ER nurses, licensed nursing assistants (LNAs), and Resident Assistants in nursing homes, retirement homes, assisted living, and other long-term care facilities. Beyond exposure to blood-borne pathogens and the occupational illnesses rampant in healthcare settings, nurses and LNAs face other daily hazards that can cause serious injuries. Two of the most common healthcare worker injuries are overexertion injuries and trips and falls.
Overexertion Injuries
Working as an LNA in a nursing home is a physically demanding job. Workers have to move, turn or lift patients and residents who are sometimes significantly heavier than the employee. This includes getting residents in and out of a bed or chair multiple times a day for multiple patients, often in facilities with low ratios of assistants to residents. These repetitive movements can injure workers’ necks, backs, shoulders and knees, including both traumatic muscle, tendon and ligament tears as well as bringing on degenerative diseases, stress fractures and other injuries over time. Hospital nurses and assistants face similar risks transferring patients between beds, gurneys, operating tables and diagnostic equipment such as MRI machines.
Trip and Fall Injuries
Hospital corridors can be quiet or chaotic. In an emergency, nurses find themselves running down the hallway as fast as they can to save a life. The risk of a slip and fall, trip and fall, or crashing into a gurney or cart is high. These accidents can result in injuries ranging from bruises to facial lacerations, broken wrists, sprained ankles, and back, neck or head injuries. Unlike typical “unsafe premises” claims, it is not necessary to prove the hospital was negligent in maintaining the premises safely. The fact that the accident happened during work time in the course of employment is enough to make the injury covered by workers’ compensation.
How Sluka Law Can Help After an Injury on the Job
After an on-the-job injury, the employer’s workers’ compensation insurance should pay all of your medical expenses and also provide you with wage replacement (typically two-thirds of your regular wages) while you are out of work or restricted to light duty. Unfortunately, the insurance company might try to get out of paying what they owe by disputing the injury or alleging it wasn’t work-related. They’ll hire their own doctors to examine you and determine whether you are able to work or not, even though these doctors don’t provide any treatment and only get a brief glimpse at how this injury has affected you. You need a lawyer in your corner who has experience representing parties on both sides of a workers’ compensation claim and knows what it takes to reach a settlement or handle a claim denial. Attorney Justin Sluka has that experience and is dedicated to helping injured healthcare workers in Vermont get the medical care and compensation they need and are owed after a workplace injury.
Call Sluka Law for Help With Your Vermont Workers’ Compensation Claim
If you have been injured on the job as a healthcare worker in a Vermont nursing home, hospital or other medical facility, call Sluka Law at 802-457-1000 for a free consultation. There’s no fee unless we win workers’ comp benefits for you.
