ProPublica article about RRs trying to prevent injuries being reported
Railroad Supervisors Go to Extremes to Hide Worker Injuries — ProPublica
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Injury handling procedures changed with every change in Senior Management. Sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad.
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Probably physical injuries would not have been a major event with Dispatching. I hope we hear from operating staff.
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I doubt this is limited to the railroads. How many facilities do you see with a sign proclaiming “X days since a lost-time accident”?
Note that it doesn’t say “reportable,” or just “accident.”
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When I was a Trainmaster (9 years of my career) and a employee got injured on duty, (normally in the slip, trip, fall category) my responsibility was to transport the individual to the ‘designated’ hospital and see that they were examined/treated by the company’s contracted Resident Physician. Efforts were made to see that any medicine was ‘Over the Counter’. Prescriptions made the injury ‘reportable’ even if the employee was able to return to unrestricted duty after departing the hospital.
As a ‘Official’ I was to do everything possible to prevent injuries from becoming ‘Reportable’ in accordance will all elements that define a Reportable Injury.
Some ‘officials’ are much more strident in their efforts to prevent a injury from becoming ‘reportable’ - some of those kinds of officials severely cross the line.
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I doubt you had a medical degree hanging up next in your cubicle at work, which shows how broken the system can be.
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But he was an “Official”!!!
Tylenol vs. Tylenol-3
One makes the injury reportable, one doesn’t. While I have stayed at Holiday Inn Express’. I am not an expert in medicine - although there are six doctors that I see during the year to keep me vertical, breathing and above room temperature.
But a trainmaster should have zero input in that decision.
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The powers of persuasion is the only ‘power’ one possesses. The Doctor is going to do what the Doctor is going to do - and is the FINAL authority.
With that being said - how many times have YOU been given a Prescription but not had it filled. Personally there are a number of prescriptions I have not had filled - mostly ‘pain killers’ - !
But yet you (you as in management) try to intimidate.
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Intimidation sometimes runs downhill…
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Did your railroad put that order in writing? And if so, how did they word it?
Agree about the intimidation and punishment factor. I remember one conductor here pulling a muscle while lining a stiff switch at a customer spur. He reported it and headed for the medical centre about an hour after it happened, once it became obvious that the pain was not going away and he had suffered something a bit more serious than a bruise. CN brought him in for two separate investigations, one for getting hurt and the second for not reporting the injury immediately, and he was disciplined for this event. After recovering he was given a few days of ‘light duties’ to start off his return to work, this entailed sitting in the station from 2200 to 0600 and helping other crews get their paperwork.
I have NEVER been accused to being an INTIMIDATOR. That is not a part of my personality.
But part of your job description?
If you’re trying to convince the doctors/patient not to prescribe (or be prescribed) something because it becomes FRA reportable - then I don’t know another word for it?
In other words, the employee was examined by a physician working for the railroad, not working for the patient. That conflict of interest can sometimes lead to under-diagnosing. It’s a slippery slope.
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Arrangements were FAR above my pay grade.
The slippery slope enabled the injured to be seen and treated, normally within and hour of arrival at the Hospital where normal ER times where 6 to 8 hours or more.
A sprained ankle or wrist competing against the normal ‘big town’ after dark range of stabbings, gun shot victims and wife beatings in the ‘normal course’ of things would be put far down the triage list.
In other words, the corporate-speak middle management parroted to the injured.
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So, what happens when a company doctor fights the supervisors too much? Is there suddenly a change in doctors?
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In my experience - the Doctors remained the Doctors.
YMMV