Staff Infection

Fred

We are a residential child care facility. Have a staff that, on their own, decided they needed to go to the emergency room at the hospital due to an infection they had. Found out it was staff, and we do have a child in the residence where she works that has a staff infection. She is now wanting us to pay for her medication and hospital expenses having never completed an incident report, or even talking to our nursing staff located on our campus.

Any experience on how to handle a case like this, or recommendations?

NeedCoffee

First off, not to be glib, but I love the way that "staff infection" is a pun of "staph infection" which I believe you are referring to - I get "staff infections" all the time when my employees bug me.....but alas, this is supposed to be serious.

The first thing you should do is have the employee fill out worker's comp paperwork, and let the worker's comp adjusters figure out whether or not you have an obligation to pay. Even if it's late, you can still file paperwork (talk with your WC administrator about statute of limitations for your state). Once they have made a determination, you'll know what to do.

If she obtained this infection while in the course of her normal duties, she may be entitled to WC benefits, unless, of course, she was negligent in not using proper PPE, etc. However, WC may find that they cannot find a direct causal link between the two - you can get a staph infection ANYWHERE, and they are becoming more and more common.

You pay WC premiums for a reason - let them do the work.

Fred

HA, it's amazing how the subconscious works. My "staff" infections are much more significant than my "staph" infections!!!

Thanks for the comments, makes good sense.

sonny

I agree with NeedCoffee. Our carrier has found was case of MSRA to be compensable and another not.