So, I work with kids, and I woke up this morning with pinkeye (conjunctivitis). This means I cannot work until it’s cured. Think I can get workman’s comp? Surely, if any illness can be attributed to work, pinkeye can be attributed to working with kids. Anybody have any experience with this? Also, any idea how much those magic eyedrops cost?
[I’m paranoid both that this might be in the wrong forum and that it will be viewed as seeking medical/legal advice. Let me be clear that I’m getting medical treatment anyway, I’m just curious as to whether or not they’ll buy my worker’s comp claim. Please do not provide any answers that amount to medical or legal advice, I am seeking neither.]
As a general rule, to be compensible under workers’ compensation laws, your injury or illness has to have arisen out of and occurred during the course of work (AOE/COE). Different states have different views on how liberal this concept should be interpreted. Some states will allow you to show nothing more than that it is more probable than not that your condition came from contact with the kids you work with. Other states will require a more strict showing. In your case, you need to see about the law in your state (which you don’t give).
As a first step, you should talk to your employer’s human resource manager, and, at the least, think about making a prompt report of this “work injury.” Many states penalize workers for claiming injuries only after it becomes clear at a later point in time that the expense and hassle of dealing with the condition merits a determination of it’s relation to work. Of course, some employers get none too friendly with employees that claim such injuries, despite the usually universal set of statutes making discrimination against workers who claim injuries illegal.
If you have a good medical plan, and aren’t likely to lose significant work time from the condition, or suffer permanent impairment of the eye, you may wish to pass on claiming the work injury and let it get treated under your medical insurance plan. Of course, there are downsides to that, as well; life’s a bitch at times, and what we all wouldn’t give for a good fortune-telling?
I am an attorney, I used to do workers’ comp. law and what I’ve said is so general that it cannot possibly be of any real use to your specific situation, so I’m not going to append the usual disclaimers you see at this site.
My daughter used to be pretty prone to pinkeye. You only need to take the eyedrops for a couple of days before you are no longer considered contagious, IIRC. You might ask your doctor if he/she can give you samples of the drops. Our doctors have always been pretty generous with samples.
Thanks for the info. Luckily, I work at a small non-profit where my boss is as much a friend as an authority; so when I called him this morning, he was the one that suggested I file for worker’s comp!
It’s in Oregon, FWIW. The doctor’s office that I just called said that they’d help me out, but that they were pretty sure that SAIF (our state-run worker’s comp agency) would deny the claim. According to the SAIF website, “A doctor must be able to verify that there is objective medical evidence showing that an injury or disease exists and that work exposure was the major cause.” I’m not sure what would constitute objective medical evidence in this case, other than objective knowledge that childcare workers have a higher incidence of conjunctivitis. Anyway, since I don’t have medical insurance, I’m looking at $50 or so (just for the visit, assuming the availability of sample drops). Oh well.
You might be able to prove something if one of the kids had pink eye during the incubation time or whatever. But yeah, you’ll need to check with your employer/state laws to get the skinny on that.
You gave it to yourself. You didn’t wash your hands.
Since the way pinkeye is transmitted is by touching something or someone with a bacteria or virus load, then touching your own eye, I doubt L&I would do anything.
The organisms that cause it are not exclusive to pinkeye or to children. They are very common, and can be found in almost every home in the U.S.
“I woke up with pink eye, therefore I cannot work until it is cured.”
I get a lot of people asking me in the Emergency Room for time off work for conjunctivitis. They don’t usually get it. There are ways of reducing the level of contagion (wash your hands, don’t rub your eye, don’t touch other people). I don’t give people time off work if they get a common cold, either. Occasionally there are real reasons for this belief, but usually not. (Teachers want time off work for ANYTHING… just kidding! Kinda.)
Well, I do wash my hands–regularly–as any childcare worker with any sense does. But even so, this argument would exclude compensation for nearly everything, since anything can be avoided with some extra action (“you smashed your own leg, you should have been paying better attention to your surroundings when that heavy box was about to fall on you”).
True enough, and this is likely why my claim will be denied–not enough proof. But I think any reasonable person will conclude that of all the places I coulda gotten this, work is, by a factor of ten, the most likely. Moreover, pinkeye, lice, general sickness…these are all the hazards of my job just like the hazards of working with chemicals is that you might spill some. I don’t think it’s unreasonable of me to ask my worker’s insurance to cover it (as I gather you believe from the tone of your post).
It’s school policy, I don’t have a choice in the matter. I’m paid hourly, it doesn’t make any sense for me to intentionally avoid work.
Not relevant to the issue, if I may be so bold. If there is a child with pink eye with which the OP has come in contact, the fact that washing hands might have lessened the risk is irrelevant for the issue of AOE/COE. Workers’ comp is, after all, supposed to be a no fault benefit.
Now, if there wasn’t specific evidence of increased risk of contagion at the job, then the issue of relative risk external vs. internal to the job would have some traction. MY fomer clients would certainly have wanted me to raise the issue.
I don’t really see how this could be a worker’s comp issue, just because it’s pinkeye and not a case of what-ever-is-going-around-the-office. Would she have a better case because the childcare center has a policy of not allowing you to come in if you are sickas opposed to just providing sick leave? Would I have a case if I’d used up all my leave, but got infected by the guy who dragged his feverish carcass to work and hacked up his lungs in my vicinity all day?
FWIW, when I was in boot camp I got what a military nurse called conjunctivitis. Her methods left something to be desired, and I considered her diagnosis dubious–but whatever it was, my eye was producing MASSIVE, and I mean UNGODLY amounts of yellow cruft continously; I received no treatment for it (according to the nurse, “it’s a virus and there’s nothing we can do about it, just don’t touch your eye, and wash your hands immediately if you do”); I got an ear infection at about the same time; I washed my hands or used sanitizer every time I touched my eye; and none of the other trainees got either (conjunctivitis or ear infection). It seemed to last for a week or two.
Suppose you get pinkeye. You work in a day care center. To your knowledge, and the knowledge of staff, no child is known specifically to have had pinkeye during an appropriate incubation period prior to your development of symptoms. Unless you can show that there is an inherently greater risk of getting pinkeye in such an employment compared to the general public, you probably won’t be compensated through Workers’ Comp. (This is why field workers in the Central Valley in California get comp for developing San Joaquin Valley Fever often)
If you work in a day care center, and you develop pinkeye, and you can show that you were working with a child who had pinkeye, during the appropriate incubation period, that would be a different story. In California, at least, it is likely you could get workers’ comp to treat it. The result might vary from one part of the state to another; the boards in California can go from fairly liberal to reasonably conservative. But in such a case, clearly a strong argument can be made that the condition resulted from the special hazards of the job (that is, working with kids).
If you work in a day care center, and you develop pinkeye, and you can show that you were working with a co-worker who had pinkeye, now you are running a very ragged edge on compensation. It would take a pretty liberal judge to grant you benefits; not unheard of, in California.
I had conjunctivitis/pink eye and was ordered not to work by the medical technician on call at Ballys Park Place. Brought the written slip to my general manager, stayed home for 2-3 days, and was reimbursed for the prescribed eyedrops.
In Ontario, the WSIB is lenient enough. I think it is unlikely they would question a doctor’s order for 2-3 days off work. I work in a town with a lot of industry and give hundreds of folks time off work each year… if it is going to make a real difference, in my view, to their ability to do a good or safe job, even if they take simple precautions or follow simple instructions.
I see lots of folks who work very labour intensive jobs who hurt their backs (for example). I have done my share of physical jobs and sympathize with them. Lots of studies show these people do better if they are given a very short time off work and are put on light duties than if they get excessive time off work altogether. I do think it is better for the patient as well as the companies, although I am far more concerned about the patient than the industry. I see very few patients here who I consider “malingerers”, although I see my fare share of patients I consider “narcotics seekers”.
I had an employee with horrible conjunctivitis. Think of the worst case of conjunctivitis you’ve ever seen and multiply that times ten. Her physician sent her to an ophthalmologist, who cultured the conjunctiva and found it was a case of Bartonella henselae aka “cat scratch fever”.
Considering that she works for a veterinarian, I assumed it would wind up as a WC case. However, the employee has cats at home. Her medical insurance covered it, but workman’s comp did not. I am in Pennsylvania.
Depending on your state you probably won’t qualify as a workmens comp but you might be able to get some kind of short term disability if you are going to be out for more than 3-5 days. Workmens comp implies that the company pays for all medical costs, this seems unlikely under the circumstances, your area may or may not have other options for disability secondary to non work related injuries.
