By Preston Diamond

In a perfect world, every injured worker would be treated by a physician trained in Occupational Medicine, one who understands how to facilitate recovery and expedite return to work.However, it's not unusual for employers and employees to be dealing with a family or urgent care practitioner who has little or no training in Occupational Medicine.

Demand for trained occupational and environmental physicians far exceeds the supply, and the need continues to grow. In fact, according to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) subcommittee on physician shortage in occupational and environmental medicine, there currently is a dearth of 3,100 to 5,500 physicians.

All too frequently, there are horror stories about physicians asking injured employees how many days they want off work or prescribing an unnecessary or improper treatment. Constrained by inadequate knowledge, declining revenues and pressures to limit visit time, many family and urgent care practitioners know little about Workers' Compensation beyond filling out the required Workers' Comp forms.

Exacerbating this problem is that the treating physician focuses 100 percent on the injury itself, giving little if any thought, to the employer or arrangements for returning the employee back to work that could actually speed recovery There is a common bias that injured employees want time off from work and the most expeditious treatment is to give them what they want.

The end result is unnecessary costs and delays in return to work with the blame being squarely placed on the treating physician. Suspicion and frustration prevail and an antagonistic attitude develops, polarizing the physician/employee/employer relationship.