Posts Tagged ‘Back Injuries’
Thursday, January 13th, 2011
The annual report on the total number of Texas work injuries was recently published and it showed another drop in the overall number of reported work injury claims for 2010. This is the 4th consecutive year showing a reduction in Texas work injury claims. Some would have us believe that this number is a good thing, and from the standpoint of fewer people getting injured I would certainly agree. However, these numbers don’t necessarily tell the whole story. Take the following points for example.
Point #1 – Unemployment. When fewer people have jobs fewer people get hurt on the job.
Point #2 – Fear of Unemployment. When so many people are already out of work, many others fear being out of work. Lots of companies fire people after they are hurt on the job. It’s not fair, but it’s a reality for many injured workers.
Point #3 – Reduction of Doctors who Treat Injured Workers. Workers Compensation health care networks have drastically limited the number of qualified doctors who are allowed to treat many injured workers. If employees have reduced access to qualified workers comp doctors, who will they report their injury to? Not reporting an injury doesn’t mean that an injury never happened, but statistically, this will add to the supposed reduction in work injury claims.
Point #4 – Work Injuries that are Treated as Regular Health Insurance Claims. Many people who are hurt at work will not only not report their injury, but they will see a doctor and say that they don’t know how the pain started. They may get some treatment from their doctor, but it will be under their regular health insurance and not under Texas Workers Compensation. Many health insurers are very good at allowing treatment for these kinds of injuries. Blue Cross Blue Shield is one very good example of an insurance company that takes care of its customers. The problem is that Texas Workers Comp provides injured workers with many rights that the injured worker must forgo by not filing a work injury claim, and by taking this route annual injury statistics appear lower than they really are.
Now clearly some of the reason for the reduced number of Texas work injury claims is due to things like better employer education on workplace safety, OSHA regulations, and other workplace safety initiatives. Those points should not be overlooked. The point I want to drive home is that these numbers are most certainly skewed and the reasons are very sad. Unemployment, fear of unemployment, reduction of qualified Texas Workers Compensation doctors, filing on health insurance instead of workers comp insurance and anything else that might have an affect on the statistics.
WOLMED Texas workers compensation doctors want to help you when you’re hurt on the job. We can’t stop unemployment, but we can help you with the fear of unemployment by helping you get the treatment you need and by taking steps to help protect your job. And sure we accept Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance and most other insurances, but we don’t want you to waive your rights under Texas Workers Compensation. Instead, we want to help protect your rights. Finally, while there is a reduction of qualified doctors who treat workers compensation, we still treat injured workers and we have no plans whatsoever to stop helping injured workers. We want to be your doctor!
If you or someone you know what hurt at work, but aren’t exactly sure what to do about it, give us a call. The Medical Doctors and Chiropractors at WOLMED can help you. We are workers comp experts. We’re open 7am to 8pm on week days and 7am to 4pm on Saturdays and we welcome same-day appointments. Call us today in Denton and Dallas, TX.
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Tags: Back Injuries, Blue Cross Blue Shield, doctor dallas, doctor denton, Federal Workers Comp, Injured Workers, Knee Injuries, Pain Management, Pain Management Dallas, Pain Management Denton, Shoulder Injuries, Texas workers comp, Work Comp, WORK INJURIES
Posted in Workers Compensation | No Comments »
Friday, July 16th, 2010
Since I’ve started writing these articles, the WOL+MED Blog has starting getting some really nice reviews from readers. They appreciate the original content (as opposed to copying from other sites) as well as the usefulness of the information presented. My favorite articles are those about how WOL+MED is giving back to our community. In fact, our 2 offices recently held our 2nd blood drive of the year, in partnership with the American Red Cross. We had over 40 volunteers this time and each person’s donation can help 3 people in need. That means we were able to help another 120 people with our blood donations.
Thank you to everyone who has participated in our public outreach efforts so far in 2010. We still have plenty more to give, so watch out for more opportunities in the coming months.
As a note to our readers: WOL+MED treats back pain, neck pain, shoulder injuries, knee injuries, hand and wrist injuries. We treat injured workers in Texas Workers Comp and we treat people injured in car wrecks. We work closely with personal injury lawyers and workers comp attorneys and we have a network of other specialists that we often refer to. We are CARF Accredited in Pain Management, which is the gold standard of rehabilitation in Texas Workers Comp. Our Medical Doctors, Chiropractors, Nurse Practitioners, Physicians Assistants, and large supporting staff are ready to help anyone who has been injured. Please call us today and let us help if you are having any of these problems.
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Tags: Auto Injuries, Back Injuries, Blood Drive, Car Wrecks, Federal Workers Comp, Injured Workers, Minor Emergency, Texas workers comp, Urgent Care, WOL+MED, WORK INJURIES, WORKERS COMP
Posted in Giving Back in 2010 | No Comments »
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
If you read our blogs, you know that we are constantly monitoring how well we are doing at meeting the needs of our patients. We have an ongoing survey that lets patients rate us from1 (bad) to 5 (excellent) on our performance. The last 15 patients that rated us gave us perfect 5′s in every area! Some of the comments that were written about us by actual patients were:
Great medical care vith a very friendly staff.
You are always professional and sweet.
Your availability is beyond amazing.
My husband and I are lucky to have ya’ll around.
Dr. Wolski and staff rock!
You are wonderful.
You guys are awesome!
WOL+MED is the best clinic ever!
Dr. Helsten, Janet, and all staff are superior.
Great service!
Lovely staff and doctor.
We really appreciate all of this great feedback and we hope that others will see this and decide to give us a try too. We love giving excellent service!
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Tags: Auto Injuries, Back Injuries, Car Wrecks, Federal Workers Comp, Injured Workers, Knee Injuries, Minor Emergency, Minor Emergency Dallas, Minor Emergency Denton, Pain Management Denton, Post Office Injuries, Postal Employees, Postal Workers, School Injuries, Shoulder Injuries, United States Postal Service, Urgent Care, Urgent Care Dallas, Urgent Care Denton, US Post Office, USPS, USPS Employees, USPS Injuries, WOL+MED, Work Comp, WORK INJURIES, WORKERS COMP
Posted in Patient Satisfaction | No Comments »
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Recently, WOL+MED has become aware of the many places on the internet that patients can go to and rate their doctors. The majority of things said about WOL+MED doctors is very positive, and even enthusiastic in many cases. Unfortunately, these sites are not able to verify that comments were made by actual patients of the doctor they are rating, or that the ratings are based on actual experiences with the doctors. Nevertheless, the feedback can be very valuable.
One website that allows people to rate doctors uses a 4-star system. Here, Dr. Wolski is rated very favorably, especially from people who we have been able to verify as actual patients of WOL+MED. There was also a bad review on there by a person who we were able to identify as someone who never had an experience with WOL+MED because they were never a patient here. So, to be fair to anyone who is interested in getting actual, true feedback from people who have actually been patients at WOL+MED, we did our own study using the same parameters as those used on the web.
Here’s what we found from a survey of 32 active WOL+MED patients. Patients were asked to rate the doctor on a 5 point scale where 5 is excellent and 1 is bad.
Ease of Appointment – 4.93 out of 5.
Courteous Staff – 4.93 out of 5.
Accurate Diagnosis – 4.93 out of 5.
Follow Up – 4.9 out of 5.
Bedside Manner – 4.84 out of 5.
Spends Time With Me – 4.75 out of 5
As you can see, actual patients at WOL+MED are very happy with the doctors and staff at WOL+MED. Now, take a look at the enthusiastic feedback these patients gave us.
Margaret is so wonderful! She takes time to listen and makes you feel comfortable in the process.
Dr. Shultz is the best. His concern for treatment is very caring and he goes above and beyond to help.
Love this place and the people.
Simply the best!
Wonderful operation. No other clinic like yours. Multitude of services is appreciated.
I wish all doctors were just as caring as Dr. Helsten.
The Doctor and staff are wonderful.
Staff is awesome.
I Love WOL+MED!
I love WOL+MED. They have been great to me and helpful with getting me better from my injuries.
The staff here and care that I received at WOL+MED has been first rate and I recommend you to all my colleagues. Thanks!
Always great service and nice people.
If anyone has a doubt as to how patients feel about the doctors and staff at WOL+MED, just remember the feedback from our actual patients. There’s a very good reason that WOL+MED’s #1 source of new patients is from the referrals of our existing patients. So, if you were hurt at work or in a car wreck, or if you or a family member is sick, give WOL+MED doctors a try. We really do want to be your doctor and we’re committed to making you happy to choose and recommend us.
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Tags: Auto Injuries, Back Injuries, Car Wrecks, Dallas Car Wrecks, Dallas Workers Comp, Denton Car Wrecks, Denton Workers Comp, Dr. Helsten, Dr. Wolski, Edward F Wolski MD, Federal Workers Comp, Happy Patients, Injured Workers, Lewisville Workers Comp, Minor Emergency, Minor Emergency Dallas, Minor Emergency Denton, New Patient Referrals, Pain Management, Pain Management Denton, Patient Satisfaction, Post Office Injuries, Postal Employees, Postal Workers, Robert Helsten MD, Shoulder Injuries, United States Postal Service, Urgent Care, Urgent Care Dallas, Urgent Care Denton, US Post Office, USPS, USPS Injuries, Wichita Falls Workers Comp, WOL+MED, Work Comp, WORK INJURIES, WORKERS COMP, Workers Comp Lewisville TX
Posted in Patient Satisfaction | No Comments »
Monday, February 8th, 2010
The Lake Lewisville bridge seems to have an invisible barrier that keeps injured workers from crossing over into Denton to get treated for a work injury. Do Lewisville injured workers realize that for just a short drive to Denton, they can be treated for a work injury by Medical Doctors who are workers comp experts. From Round Grove Road, to Loop 288, in Denton, the trip only takes about 10 to 15 minutes. That’s an easy drive to get expert medical care for a complicated work injury. Lewisville, TX is home to people who work for the post office, education, transportation, manufacturing, retail, and much more. People in these industries are among the most injured in Denton County. It’s important that injured workers in Lewisville, TX know where to go to get expert treatment for their workers comp injury. Consider WOL+MED in Denton, TX. If you or someone you know lives in Lewisville, TX, let WOL+MED help you with your workers comp injury. For more information about how WOL+MED can help Lewisville, TX injured workers, call (940) 484-7000 or visit us on line at www.wolmed.com. We want to be your doctor!
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Tags: Back Injuries, Federal Workers Comp, Injured Workers, Lewisville, Lewisville Injured Workers, Lewisville Work Injuries, Pain Management Lewisville TX, Postal Employees, TX Workers Comp, United States Postal Service, US Post Office, USPS Injuries, WOL+MED, Work Comp, WORK INJURIES, WORKERS COMP, Workers Comp Lewisville TX
Posted in Pain Management, WORK INJURIES, WORKERS COMP, Workers Compensation | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
A study published by the American Pain Foundation reports that over 76 million Americans suffer from pain. The study found that pain actually affects about 1 1/2 times as many people as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer COMBINED. Adults age 45 to 64 are most likely to experience pain, with slightly more women than men experiencing pain. Most startling of all of the data is that 42% of people in pain report experiencing pain for more than one year.
20% of adults said that pain interrupted their sleep at least a few nights per week. The most common source of pain was low back pain, followed by severe headaches and migraines, and neck pain. Adults with low back pain were found to be more than 4 times more likely to experience serious psychological distress than those without low back pain.
The final part of the study describes the sad reality that so many people never get treated for their pain symptoms or wait until their symptoms are as bad as possible before seeing a doctor. This happens for lots of reasons, but none of them are good ones. If you’re experiencing pain, call your doctor. If pain is keeping you awake at night, call your doctor. If pain has made you feel depressed, call your doctor. If your pain won’t go away, call your doctor. Don’t let pain take control of your life – call your doctor.
WOL+MED CARF Pain Management has been a good solution for hundreds of other people who have suffered from persistent, chronic pain symptoms. Our medical doctors can help you TODAY. Don’t be one of those people who continue to suffer without getting help. Call your doctor. Call WOL+MED.
Denton: (940) 484-7000, Dallas: (972) 572-5000
For more information on this pain study, go to http://www.painfoundation.org/newsroom/reporter-resources/pain-facts-figures.html.
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Tags: Back Injuries, Back Pain, Chronic Pain, Google, Headaches, Migraines, Neck Pain, Pain, Pain Management, Pain Management Dallas, Pain Management Denton, WOL+MED
Posted in Chronic Pain, Healthcare, Pain Management | No Comments »
Monday, December 21st, 2009
According to the Texas Department of Transportation, there were 61,954 serious injury crashes in the state of Texas. Denton county had 1,208 serious injury crashes, Collin county had 1,616, Dallas County had 5,532, and Tarrant County had 4,491.
The #1 contributing factor to these serious injury crashes was failing to control speed, followed by driver inattention (going too fast and not paying attention).
The following data is the most surprising. If you were asked what the weather conditions were of most injuries, you would probably say rainy or icy conditions or driving at night. You would be wrong. 63% of serious injury crashes occurred during daylight hours and 88% happened during dry road conditions. Less than 7% of serious injury crashes happened during rainy conditions. Serious injury crashes happened only about 10% of the time when combining wet and icy road conditions.
Finally, the ages of drivers who were in serious injury accidents was not as surprising. Of those accidents where the driver’s age was reported, 27% were between the ages of 18 and 25, 23% were between the ages of 26 and 35, 19% were 36 to 45, 16% were 46 to 55, and 15% were 56+.
So, what does this data tell us? For one, watch out for young adults driving too fast in near-perfect conditions. I always assumed (and was wrong) that most serious injuries happened during poor weather / driving conditions, but everyone knows that the younger drivers are the most at risk for car accidents.
What do you do when you are hurt in a car wreck? Always call the police and get an accident report. This is very helpful for your insurance company. Call 911 if you or someone else is seriously injured. See a doctor who specializes in auto injuries as soon as possible following the accident. WOL+MED, for example, can see you the same day as your injury, and we specialize in auto injuries and urgent care. Also, you might need a personal injury lawyer and believe me, there are some really good ones out there.
Personal Injury Attorneys specialize in dealing directly with your insurance company and with the other driver’s insurance company. They make sure that all of your injuries and auto damages are fully covered. Many people think they can do all of this alone, but personal injury lawyers know how to get over the hurdles that some insurance carriers put in the way. As far as doctor’s bills are concerned, a personal injury attorney will give the doctor a letter of protection (LOP) and this will allow you to get all of the treatment you need with no out-of-pocket cost. Car accidents are unexpected to say the least. You’re not planning on having to pay doctor’s bills and auto body expenses. LOP’s will help you get all of that done with far less financial stress.
WOL+MED knows who the good personal injury lawyers are and we can recommend someone to you who will do the right job for you. If you or a loved one has been in a serious auto injury, give WOL+MED a call. We are auto injury experts and we want to be your doctor.
For more information, visit on the web at www.wolmed.com.
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Tags: Ankle Injuries, Auto Injuries, Back Injuries, Car Wrecks, Emergency Room, ER, Fractures, Injured Workers, Knee Injuries, Minor Emergency, Minor Emergency Dallas, Minor Emergency Denton, Shoulder Injuries, Urgent Care, Urgent Care Dallas, Urgent Care Denton, WOL+MED, WORK INJURIES, WORKERS COMP
Posted in Attorney, Auto Injuries, Chronic Pain, Healthcare, Law, Lawyer, Minor Emergency, Pain Management, Personal Injury, Urgent Care | No Comments »
Friday, December 18th, 2009
In order to remain CARF accredited, WOL+MED is required to provide access or referral to legal entities for appropriate representation and to have information available to our patients regarding advocacy. In other words, we are required to help patients find attorneys who can help them with the legal aspects of their work injuries. Workers Comp attorneys can be very helpful for injured workers. Very often, people who were hurt on the job have trouble getting their injuries approved by the insurance carrier and sometimes they have difficulty getting their entire injury claim accepted. Attorneys can file for Benefit Review Conferences (BRC) and Contested Case Hearings (CCH) that often clear up the problems that injured workers have for getting treatment.
BRC’s and CCH’s can be overwhelming and intimidating for injured workers because they have to attend the hearings and represent themselves against lawyers and other workers comp experts who are trying to keep their case closed. If the case is closed, then injured workers can’t get the treatment they need to get better. When they can’t get better, they often lose their jobs, suffer from depression and financial loss, and more. Workers Comp attorneys can usually prevent these bad things from happening.
CARF recognizes the need for patients to have legal advocacy and so does WOL+MED. We can recommend very good, qualified workers compensation lawyers who will help get your case open or keep it open and help get your work injuries accepted by the insurance carrier.
Some people worry that they will have to pay the attorney and that usually is not true. Most of the time, the workers comp attorney is paid a percentage by insurance carriers, but ONLY when you get paid and ONLY when your case is going well. These lawyers have to do the right job for you before they ever get paid. The other thing that is very important to remember is that if you have to be off work due to a work injury that is not accepted by the insurance carrier, you most likely will not get paid. When your attorney gets your claim approved, that also keeps your checks coming. Many patients think that’s worth it since they wouldn’t get paid without their attorney.
When you’re hurt at work, the last thing you should have to worry about is if you will have insurance problems or if you will have to pay money out of your own pocket to get treatment. It’s not fair to you when that happens. WOL+MED helps you with these problems by recommending very good, qualified workers comp attorneys to be in your corner.
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Tags: Ankle Injuries, Attorneys, Back Injuries, CARF, Federal Workers Comp, Fractures, Injured Workers, Knee Injuries, Lawyers, Minor Emergency, Minor Emergency Dallas, Minor Emergency Denton, Post Office Injuries, Postal Employees, Postal Workers, School Injuries, Shoulder Injuries, United States Postal Service, University of North Texas, UNT, Urgent Care, Urgent Care Dallas, Urgent Care Denton, USPS Injuries, WOL+MED, Work Comp, WORK INJURIES, WORKERS COMP, Workers Comp Attorneys
Posted in Attorney, Chronic Pain, Healthcare, Law, Lawyer, Minor Emergency, Pain Management, Urgent Care, USPS Injuries, WORK INJURIES, WORKERS COMP, Workers Comp Attorney, Workers Compensation | 2 Comments »
Friday, December 11th, 2009
WOL+MED has earned its 3rd straight maximum CARF accreditation for Pain Management, Work Hardening, and Work Conditioning. CARF stands for the Commission on Accreditation of Rehab Facilities. This is the international “Gold Standard” in rehabilitation. By the end of the current accreditation period, WOL+MED will have been accredited for a full decade. To become CARF accredited, a medical / physical therapy facility has to meet or exceed hundreds of standards for excellence. Among these standards are those requiring accessibility into the rehab programs, tracking of excellent outcomes, patient satisfaction, maintaining an excellent medical team, effective business operations, maintaining a safe treatment environment, and much more. CARF accreditation is an ongoing effort which means that WOL+MED is committed to always providing the highest level of service to its patients and their families. We don’t have to be CARF accredited. After all, it’s really hard. We do it because we know that it makes us better and because we know that it’s important to our patients.
At last check, WOL+MED has the only CARF accredited Pain Management program between Dallas and St. Louis, Missouri (traveling along I-35). We’re proud of our program and of our patients’ results. The majority of people who complete our programs get better and are able to get their life back. With our continued CARF accreditation, we’re committed to that high level of excellence.
If you know someone who suffers with chronic pain or they haven’t gotten the results they expect from other places, please tell them about WOL+MED’s CARF accredited pain management program. Go to our web site and read the testimonials from other patients who experienced success with WOL+MED. We can help.
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Tags: Ankle Injuries, Auto Injuries, Back Injuries, Car Wrecks, Chronic Pain, Denton ISD, Emergency Room, ER, Federal Workers Comp, Fractures, Injured Workers, Knee Injuries, Lewisville ISD, Minor Emergency, Minor Emergency Dallas, Minor Emergency Denton, Pain Management, Pain Management Dallas, Pain Management Denton, Post Office Injuries, Postal Employees, Postal Workers, School Injuries, Severe Pain, Shoulder Injuries, Texas Womens University, TSA, TWU, United States Postal Service, University of North Texas, UNT, Urgent Care, Urgent Care Dallas, Urgent Care Denton, US Post Office, USPS, USPS Employees, USPS Injuries, WOL+MED, Work Comp, WORK INJURIES, WORKERS COMP
Posted in Chronic Pain, Healthcare, Minor Emergency, Pain Management, United States Postal Service, Urgent Care, USPS Injuries, WORK INJURIES, WORKERS COMP, Workers Compensation | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Many people don’t realize that WOL+MED also provides minor emergency services in its Denton and Dallas clinics. We take walk-in appointments and we are open until 8pm during the week and for most of the day on Saturdays. Dr. Robert Helsten, MD is an expert in helping patients with emergency needs. Before coming to WOL+MED Dr. Helsten served in an emergency room for several years. Along with Dr. Helsten, Dr. Rodney Shultz, DC, PA-C is an experienced Chiropractor and Physicians Assistant. He is very well trained in suturing large wounds, which is a common injury found in Minor Emergency Clinics. WOL+MED is able to help patients with high fever, large cuts, sprains & strains, flu symptoms, vomiting, dehydration, fractures, back injuries, shoulder injuries, knee and ankle injuries, and much more.
If you or a loved one requires urgent care or help for a minor emergency, please give WOL+MED a try. We are an excellent alternative to the sometimes brutal wait times of the emergency room. Our medical team is always ready to help you.
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Tags: Ankle Injuries, Auto Injuries, Back Injuries, Car Wrecks, Emergency Room, ER, Fever, Fractures, High Fever, Influenza, Knee Injuries, Lacerations, Minor Emergency, Minor Emergency Dallas, Minor Emergency Denton, Shoulder Injuries, Urgent Care, Urgent Care Dallas, Urgent Care Denton, USPS Injuries, WOL+MED, WORK INJURIES, WORKERS COMP
Posted in Auto Injuries, Healthcare, Minor Emergency, United States Postal Service, Urgent Care, USPS Injuries, WORK INJURIES, WORKERS COMP, Workers Compensation | No Comments »
