Previous injury/re-injured

dcastaneda

An employee fell off of a loading dock approximately 2 years ago and injured his knee (this is before my time). According to him, when he reported it to management, they refused to let him seek immediate medical attention from the W/C dr; they said that he could make an appt to see his personal physician when he could get in and they would give him that time off. To my understanding, no reports were filed anywhere. OK, here is the situation now, same employee slipped on wet surface yesterday and dislocated same knee cap. He was sent this time to the W/C dr, requested drug test, etc. W/C doctor wrapped and sent home clearing him for work until he could get into an orthopedic specialist. In my opinion, the first accident was not handled appropriately and even though this one was, I am concerned about the legal implications that could arise due to the lack of appropriate treatment resulting from the injury on the first incident. I am at a loss here; what should I do?

KMANCOR

Since this is a new injury - new accident - I would treat it as such and not worry about the old accident. Two years ago is a bit late. This is a new accident.

LindaS

I wouldn't be too concerned about the past injury. The employee chose not to seek medical treatment, or if he did he didn't report it, so this would be considered a new injury.

E Wart

You could end up having problems, but at this point I wouldn't worry about it since it doesn't seem to have been brought up by anyone. (I would have been more worried if he had hurt knee playing basketball on Sunday on own time and now claiming w/c).
A couple of years is a long time and it doesn't look as if you are questioning the present injury. I would just address everything as what happened on this recent particular day at work and how he was injuried from this. It looks as if you aren't questioning his hurting it at work and his doctor hasn't said anything about a prior injury. (The only reason I can think of at this point that the information on this old injury might be benefitical would be if your state has a second injury trust fund through their worker's comp board. With the present economic situation, most states have done away with this. (GA still has theirs.)
E. Wart