This is an article full of landmines.
On one side, I can see what the bill is trying to curb — abuse by employees and their health care providers to rationalize their disabilities through nonphysical fraud. There have been stories printed in my local paper that describe unbelievable circumstances of worker compensation abuse, all paid for by other employees in the system and ultimately by other taxpayers.
Fortunately those cases are few. For the vast majority of workers, to receive some benefit is vital and potentially life-saving while they heal from their injuries, and return to work. That’s where the bill has to tread lightly, or it risks throwing out the proverbial baby with the bath water.
I can imagine what the police officer must have witnessed that drove him to pull his weapon on himself. That type of tragedy affects each of us differently and to varying depths. Unlike a physical injury like a broken ankle or strained back, not as much is known about the effects associated with a psychological injury.
Today I am at a county-wide, mandatory in-service training. Part of the class is reviewing and practicing seldom used skills such as cricothyrotomy, Intraosseous insertion, and pediatric intubation. As I practiced, I remembered the different cases I’ve had to handle over the years where I last used some of these skills.
Some of the cases were truly tragic, causing sadness not only for the patient or surviving family, but also for the rescuers involved. I’m certain that a few colleagues had left the profession because of a single or cumulative series of cases. These are tough situations to handle, and it can only be made worse for an employer to be limited in his or her ability to recognize and manage these incidents.
