One day absence in emergency room

safety

We have an ee who was absent for one day and was seen in the local ER where he spent most of the day passing a kidney stone. The certification came back stating the patient was on pain meds rendering him unable to function in any capacity. It does not state anything about future treatment, continued treatment, i.e. prescriptions, etc. Would you certify this as qualifying under FML?

SMace

I would cover the time noted on the FMLA cert. Inpatient care qualifies.

mushroomHR

I was under the impression that inpatient care means an overnight stay in a hospital. I don't believe the emergency room would be considered inpatient.

SMace

Here's what I use. It says nothing about overnight stay.

The Employee’s Serious Health Condition

According to the statute, the term serious health condition means an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves one of the following:

¨ Inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility.

I think you are going to have a tough time denying FMLA to someone that recieved inpatient hospital care for kidney stones, just because they did not stay overnight.

Whirlwind

I don't see any downside to allowing this as FMLA. Anyone who's ever passed a kidney stone knows that he's suffered enough!

I do believe that the accepted definition of inpatient care means "admitted" to the hospital, which means an overnight stay as opposed to outpatient (day) surgery or ER care. However, from personal experience, even though the certification didn't state it, someone who has a kidney stone usually gets referred back to their primary care physician for a kidney x-ray for evaluation of the possibility of other stones. The kidney x-ray is not a routine x-ray because it involves the night-before "purge" (like prior to a colonoscopy) and injection of dye for an optimal view of the kidneys. My point being that that he will probably wind up with some of sort additional diagonostics and/or treatment, and would therefore qualify for FMLA, inpatient hospital care or not.

HRinFL

I agree with the others that there is no harm with classifying it as FMLA - that is definitely playing it safe. However, for the sake of playing devil's advocate, I think you would be fine not classifying it as FMLA as well.

What is your attendance policy? Is this ee one that is out right up the acceptable limit each active period? We typically give the Cert. Form to the ee after the third day, or if we believe the injury illness will cause the associate to miss more than three days of work. If the form is approved, the time starts when the ee first went out for his or her condition. I believe that it would be a stretch to say that this was a "serious" health condition. To me there are not many one day conditions that are FMLA qualifying. If you consider this one day absence due to a kidney stone as a qualifying reason under the FMLA, what other diagnoses that result on a one day absence would you consider a qualifying reason (No migraine arguments because those are usually reoccuring and fall under intermittent leave x:D)?

Now, if the ee misses subsequent days due to pain, complications, etc., you definitely need to count it as FMLA, and retro it back to the original date, since it is when what you would consider the onset of the position to be. The main question is what have you previously done in similar situations? You need to treat this ee in the same manner.

HRLASS

Many of our supervisors don't file FMLA paperwork if the dr says the employee will be back in a week or less. Company policy says file it for two reasons: 1) complications happen and recovery periods differ for different people, and 2) start the clock. Who knows how many FMLA qualifying incidents will occur within the year. You don't want an employee to take 12 1-week absences that you haven't counted and you're in a spot when you have to explain why you suddenly want to start counting. We generally count a dr appt procedure as a dr appt, and most surgeries where the employee expects to be out for more than a day as FMLA - even if they will not be in the hospital overnight.

marc

I say allow it, so no attendance policy violations, and start the clock. As another poster said, there is likely some follow-up with this condition - and it would also qualify - and the clock runs again.

safety

I did allow this as FML after contacting the DOL and hearing their answer, and, of course, with the help of my Forum Friends, thanks.

Don D

I would allow it too; but, outpatient care does not qualify as inpatient care. Inpatient by definition means overnight stay and staying from one calendar day to the next, extending past the time of morning that the hospital defines as having spent a night in the hospital. Spending part of a day in an emergency room or anti-room of a hospital does not qualify as inpatient care. But, again, I'd qualify it for FMLA, and move on.