If you have an injury that happened at work, you need to treat it differently than if you were injured on your own. Here are some things that you'll need to do to get started with a successful workplace compensation claim.

Report The Injury Immediately

It's crucial that you report the injury to your employer as soon as possible. Always make a formal notification in written form just to be safe, since there are time limits for how long you have to report the injury. You'll want to make sure that you reported the injury before the deadline, and have the proof that you actually did it. 

A potential problem that people run into is verbally telling a boss and thinking that's enough to count as notification. While there are some exceptions to this rule, such as a major injury where EMS was brought in and everyone was clearly aware of the situation, it's much harder to prove verbal notification for a minor injury. Do it in writing just to be safe. 

Seek Immediate Medical Help

Treating the injury immediately is going to show how serious the injury actually is. A problem with a long gap between your injury in treatment is that it doesn't make your injury seem serious. It may be something that is minor and not really bothering you, or else you would have gotten help right away. The other problem is that a gap between the injury and getting medical help can make it seem as if the injury wasn't caused by the original accident. 

For example, you could immediately say that treatment right after an injury was caused by the original accident. However, if there is a big gap between the two, you may be accused of being hurt in a different way on your own and trying to blame the original workplace injury. It is easier to not cause any doubt to come up by getting treated right away. 

Get A List Of Qualified Doctors

Using workers' compensation is like using a different type of health insurance. You may want to keep using your own doctor, but you need to see an approved doctor for the bills to be covered by workers' compensation insurance. Make sure that you get that list of doctors so you can start seeing them to have your workplace injury treated. The doctors are simply in-network doctors for the workers' compensation insurance, and they will not be biased toward your employer. 

Contact a work-related injury attorney to learn more.