Workers Comp

NedRN · Jan 11, 2015

Can you restate your question please? Travelers are not covered by hospital's workers comp, their agency is responsible for WC. There is no reason for a hospital to terminate your contract for being injured unless you cannot work and perform on the contract.

Please tell us what actually happened and then perhaps readers can relate any similar experiences.

SFANURSE2011, MSN, RN · Jan 13, 2015

I only had two weeks left on the contract. I was moving a patient back from CT to ICU with a CNA. The bed in route while we were navigating corridors somehow move forward and collided with me and the wall during transportation. I filled the required paperwork per facility and agency that I use and was out of work for 4 days which there are only two days left to work. I have had multiple issues at this facility with various things. My question is has other nurses encountered any injuries while working and how did the facility react?

NedRN · Jan 13, 2015

I think how a hospital would react is pretty predictable. They probably would decline to let you work the last two shifts unless you had a physician release.

Contractually the hospital could term you no matter where in the assignment you had a problem for failure to perform. What a hospital would do in the middle of an assignment will vary depending on their HR culture and how valuable you are to them.

As far as workers comp goes, that is entirely in your agency and their carrier's hands. Under some conditions, liability reverts back to the hospital - usually if the agency didn't have insurance. If the accident can be proven to be the hospital's fault, the WC carrier may sue the hospital but that doesn't affect you.