Injury Notification

> Recording incidents and injuries
> Investigating accidents
> Notifying your insurance company
> Notifying WorkCover
> Provisional liability payments
> Car accidents
> Templates & References
 

Recording incidents and injuries

In the event of a worker, client or resident being involved in an injury or incident the supervisor must be notified. Provide first aid treatment if required - by a Registered Nurse or an authorised first aid officer.

There are two laws that require employers in NSW to keep site records of injuries and treatments provided to injured workers:

• OHS Regulation 2001 requires a list of treatments provided by first aiders and recommends that it be kept in the first aid box or treatment room.
• The Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 requires that a Register of Injuries be kept for all reports of injury on the site.

There is no prescribed format for these documents - they can be separate or combined. In order to reduce paperwork, it is a good idea to combine recording your first aid treatments, injuries and investigations of injuries in the one document - often called an Incident/ Injury Report. If you do this then you have all the information you may need in the one place.

Investigating accidents

Your other important role in recording the injury or incident, is to investigate the cause and take corrective action to make sure it does not happen again. Usually the supervisor is responsible for conducting a preliminary investigation, in consultation with the worker or resident, to determine how the incident occurred. This is recorded on the report and then forwarded to management.

Management and, where applicable, an employee representative, will then check the Incident/Injury Report. It is really important for the cause of the injury and the action for future prevention to be recorded on the form and to be signed off by the manager.

The final outcome of all incident investigations will be reported to the OHS Committee (or other consultative mechanism). They will then review, and if necessary revise, the recommended actions and monitor the effectiveness of the new hazard control method.

Notifying your insurance company

All injuries must be reported to your insurer within 48 hours of you becoming aware of the injury. Your insurance company will have a preferred format for notification of injuries. Some insurance companies will accept a copy of your Register of Injuries and Treatment form, others will accept a telephone call and many accept fax or email notification.

An injured worker or a third party who represents the worker, can also directly contact the insurance company in order to make a first notification of a workplace injury. This notification is enough for the insurance company to start payments to the injured worker. Ensure that you maintain control of notifications by having a tight system for the completion of your Register of Injuries so that you can be the first to notify the insurance company and begin the injury management process.

Notifying WorkCover

Employers are only required to report injuries to workers to WorkCover if they involve serious injury or death. Your workers compensation insurer is required to pass incident reports to WorkCover. To report an injury to WorkCover, call 13 10 50. Other incidents may be reported to WorkCover via an online form at www.workcover.nsw.gov.au

 Provisional liability payments

Within seven days of being notified of an injury, the insurance company is expected to begin provisional payments to the worker. Payment under these provisions is not an admission of liability by the insurance company or your organisation, however, the costs are added to the cost of the claim.

The insurance company has to begin making these provisional payments unless they have a "reasonable excuse" for not doing so, for example:

The insurance company:

• may not have enough medical information,
• may have been unable to contact the treating doctor,
• is unable to contact the worker after trying repeatedly, by phone, electronic means or in writing.

The worker:

• may not be a "worker" under NSW workers compensation law,
• refuses permission to the insurance company to release or collect information to check their entitlement to provisional payments.

The injury:

• is not work related, eg a third party signs a statement describing how the injury happened playing sport,
• is not significant, ie the worker is not likely to be away from normal duties for seven consecutive days,
• was notified after two months.

The insurance company will notify the injured worker in writing about provisional payments, including:

• The time period of provisional payment (maximum 12 weeks);
• The types of provisional payments - weekly workers compensation payments, medical expenses (maximum $5,000), travel expenses, and accredited rehabilitation provider services;
• The injury management plan;
• Whether the injured worker needs to complete a claim form and if so how.

The insurance company will notify the injured worker in writing if it decides that the injured worker is not entitled to provisional payments.

Insurance companies who unreasonably delay payments may be fined up to $5,500.

Car Accidents

A worker who has a car accident may be entitled to claim compensation under workers compensation or under the compulsory third party (CTP) insurance. The cost of a car accident claim does not impact on your workers compensation premium when the worker is travelling to or from work - it is considered that the employer does not have control over the safety of the road so it would be unfair for the employer to carry the cost of an accident!

There are different forms and procedures for car accidents.

Workers in car accidents who claim workers compensation

A worker who has a car accident may be covered by your workers compensation insurance policy:

• while driving or a passenger on the usual route to and from work;
• while driving or a passenger during lunch time;
• while driving or a passenger as part of work (''travelling in the course of employment")

All workers must provide a WorkCover Medical Certificate with any claim for compensation regarding car accidents and a Journey Accident Claim Form must be completed. Obtain this from your workers compensation insurance company.

The injury management process is the same as for workplace injuries.

Workers who claim Compulsory Third Party Insurance (CTP)

If a worker has an accident involving another car it is the right of the worker to make a claim against the driver's CTP insurance company. The worker must ensure that they exchange details with the other driver. Details include: name, address, telephone contact, CTP insurance company, the name of any witnesses to the accident and the names of attending police.

The process for any person claiming under CTP is as follows:

• Complete a CTP Accident Notification Form within 28 days of the accident. This form is available from the treating doctor. It includes a medical certificate and an accident report.
• Send it to the driver's CTP insurance company.
• Complete internal Incident/Injury Report form.
• If the CTP claim is approved the person will be entitled to the first $500 of treatment expenses
• If they require more treatment than this, they will need to complete a CTP claim form as soon as possible. This must be submitted within 6 months of the injury. Once the CTP insurance company has admitted liability, further treatment and other compensations will be considered.

Templates & References

Incident/Injury Report

WorkCover Medical Certificate

WorkCover Provisional Liability and Claims Guidelines

WorkCover NSW: The New Simple Way to Notify Work-Related Incidents. 1 September 2003 (How to notify work-related incidents)