Sorry again it’s been so quiet around here lately; I’m still super-duper busy with that whole work thing, though the project I’m working most intensely on is about to wrap up– with a happy ending, I suspect.
Anyway, I received an email just the other day about changes in workman’s comp insurance that I thought I would bring up here. Apparently, an email recently went around (I presume from Human Resources) informing personnel of the following:
“Effective immediately, any Eastern Michigan University employee who suffers a work-related injury and who requires non-emergency medical treatment should go to Midwest Health Center. Midwest Health Center is now the University’s designated health care provider for all work-related injuries. The health center is located at 9301 Middlebelt Road, in Romulus.”
Now, the form on the HR web site for “Occupational Illness or Injury” does make it clear that the seriously injured should “seek medical attention immediately” at the nearest emergency room, which I take to mean that if there is an emergency on campus at work, it’s okay to go to St. Joe’s or U of M.
Still, it’s pretty easy to imagine all kind of complications here. As the policy states, a non-emergency medical situation needs to treated at this place, which is out by the airport. Who is going to pick up the mileage for that trip? What if the medical situation is a little fuzzy, somewhere between “obvious emergency” and “non-emergency?”
And really, what sorts of “non-emergency” work-related injuries/illnesses would an employee treat with this service and not their regular insurance anyway? I mean, in my own line of work, I have a hard time drawing a line between work-related and life-related injuries of any sort, but suppose I had work-related pain in my hands from typing all day or back pain from my crappy office chair. If these things were an issue, I’d probably go and see my regular doctor at my convenience. If I had a real and honest to goodness work-related emergency (“ARG! I caught, mangled, and/or gashed my hand in the department photocopier!”), then I’d go to the emergency room. So really, is there such a thing at a place like EMU as “non-emergency” work-related injuries/illnesses?
The faculty union sent around an interesting Q&A about this issue of the workman’s comp insurance/health care issues. This comes from the EMU “risk management” folks:
Curious that these so called FAQs were produced from an EMU management office, but sent out by the EMU faculty union. Has management subcontracted its communications to members of the faculty to the faculty union?