Posts Tagged ‘Postal Workers’

USPS Postal Employees Still Among Highest Injured Federal Employees in 2010

Monday, June 6th, 2011

OSHA publishes its Federal Injury and Illness Statistics for each fiscal year.  In 2010, United States Postal Employees were among the most affected, by work-related injury and illness, of all federal employees.  In past years, the USPS had 48,000+ reported cases of injury and illness.  2010 was improved, with 40,588 reported cases.  Incidentally, 40,588 is 2nd only to the Federal Government (executive, legislative, and judicial branches combined) with 67,996 cases. 

I like to report on this information each year because the statistics are very interesting.  US Postal Employees have very physically demanding jobs.  In 2010, nearly 7% of the 593,850 USPS employees reported cases of work injury or illness.  That’s about 1 in 14.  With that in mind, take a look at the following data.

The Census Bureau reported 18% of its employees as having work related injury and illness.

Customs and Border Protection had nearly 10%

The Forest Service had just over 7%.

The Bureau of Prisons had almost 7%.

Those 4 agencies are the only federal agencies with a higher incidence of work-related injury and illness than the United States Postal Service. 

The Department of Defense had 2.58%

The FBI had 3.36%

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had 5.32%

The Social Security Administration had 1.25%.

The Department of Veteran’s Affairs had 3.74%.

If you are a USPS employee, your chances of sustaining a work injury are very high.  Call WOLMED if you are hurt on the job.  We can help you today.

DOL Doctors in Dallas, TX

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

WOLMED in Dallas, TX specializes in work injuries, especially work injuries from the Department of Labor (DOL Injuries).  Treating injured workers in federal workers compensation is different from work injuries in Texas Workers Compensation.  The rules are very different.  The required forms are different.  Impairment Ratings (Schedule Awards) work differently too.  You really have to be careful when choosing a treating doctor in federal workers compensation because lots of doctors are very good at Texas Workers Compensation, but they may not have the specialized knowledge and specialized staff needed to do the best possible job for injured DOL patients.  What if your CA forms are filled out wrong?  For starters, that’s very bad.  This could cost you a lot of money in lost wages (at least temporarily) and if the mistake is serious enough, it could cost a person their job unnecessarily.  In DOL / Federal Workers Comp, the injured workers simply can’t afford these kinds of mistakes.  So, choose a doctor who is an expert in Federal Workers Comp / DOL.  This is critically important.

At WOLMED, we treat a high number of injured workers from the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA) and from the United States Postal Service (USPS).  They like that in addition to us being experts in Federal Workers Compensation, we also use Medical Doctors who can manage every aspect of an injured worker’s medical care.  And, the patients / injured workers like WOLMED too because we always make patients #1.  These federal injured workers always give us excellent feedback and high ratings.

If you or someone you know and love are hurt at work for a federal agency like the VA or the Post office, you need to give WOLMED a call.  We will get you in today and immediately begin helping you get better.  We will do our part to keep your  job safe and you will get better and be happy.

We want to be your Federal Workers Comp doctor.

Post Office Doctors

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

WOLMED treats patients who were injured working for the post office. Since 2008, the medical doctors at WOLMED have treated 134 people who work for the United States Postal Service. Federal workers comp has different rules than state workers comp. A doctor who treats patients under the Department of Labor must be more highly specialized in those federal rules than doctors who treat only state workers comp.

Federal workers comp has special forms that must be filled out and submitted to the DOL and to the employer. If these forms are not filled out correctly and on-time, it could cause serious problems for the injured worker, including loss of pay, loss of injury benefits, and loss of job.

If you’re hurt at work for the post office, you need to choose your doctor very carefully. There are a lot of really good doctors out there, but if your doctor doesn’t specialize in federal workers comp and doesn’t understand the rules that injured postal employees and other injured federal workers must follow, you could have a lot of problems – other than the injury itself.

WOLMED does specialize in federal workers compensation. We understand the rules set forth by the Department of Labor and we pride ourselves in having excellent patient outcomes and excellent patient satisfaction scores. Our patients get better. They are happy. And – they don’t experience the hassles that are possible when the doctor isn’t a federal workers comp expert.

If you or someone you know was injured working for the post office or any other federal agency, choose WOLMED for the treatment of your federal workers comp injury.

We want to be your doctor!

More Great Patient Feedback

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!

Positive Patient Feedback

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.

WOL+MED is Giving Back in 2010

Monday, March 15th, 2010

WOL+MED Medical is “Giving Back in 2010″.  This is the theme we’re rallying around.  We worked with the North Texas Food bank during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and provided 4,000 meals!  In doing this, we realized that there’s a lot of charitable giving that we can do with such a large office staff.  WOL+MED employs nearly 50 people in the Denton area and with such a large staff, we can do a lot of good.  Next week, we’re doing a clothing drive with the Salvation Army.  They will come to our office in Denton and pick up the clothing, which is very convenient and will help more of our folks give back.  Next month (April 16th), WOL+MED will be hosting a blood drive with the America Red Cross and we’re setting a goal of 100 donors.  We’ll have BBQ, cold drinks, and a drawing for those who donate.  After this, we’ll be participating in another food drive with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) that starts May 5th.

The employees at WOL+MED are very excited about the many opportunities we have available to give back.  The events listed above are just the beginning to a very big year in 2010.  We plan to be the most giving organization in the area this year.

Rain or Snow, the Mailman Delivers

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

According to CBS 11, the DFW area set a record of 9.4″ of snow – the most snow to ever fall in a single calendar day (as of 9:30pm).  The roads were slick and terrible.  Schools were closed, businesses closed early, and the post office delivered.  The road in front of my house had snow up to the top of the curb and the mailman drove his mail truck from one mailbox to the next and at just about the same time as every other day.  I was amazed at the perseverance of the United States Postal Service.  They really do deliver the mail regardless of the weather.  I think we should all make an effort to meet our postal delivery person and say thank you.  They have a really hard job and they often risk their safety in the line of duty, like today.  We all get our mail on time, every day, come rain or snow, because the USPS goes the extra mile.  We owe them a debt of gratitude.

Do You Need a Workers Comp Attorney in Your Corner?

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.

WOL+MED Earns Maximum CARF Accreditation

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.

WOL+MED & North Texas Food Bank Feed Thousands

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

WOL+MED has teamed up with the North Texas Food Bank to help feed families in need.  The North Texas Food Bank uses a virtual food drive so that anyone can get involved.  When you don’t have time to go to the grocery store and buy canned food, you can instead donate money online.  When you don’t have time to take food to the food bank, you can donate money online.  WOL+MED employees made enough donations during the Thanksgiving holiday to provide over 4,000 meals!  We will continue to support the North Texas Food Bank thru the Christmas holiday and throughout 2010.  If you would like to make a donation, you can click on the food bank icon located on WOL+MED’s home page.  Thank you for your support!